A woman had to have her forehead re-stitched after dozens of stitches caused a flesh-eating infection that left a hole in her head.
In September 2019, Shelley Puchalsky, a 40-year-old woman from Delaware, was running with her dog on a dirt trail when she tripped over her pet and fell face-first into the gravel.
With blood streaming down her face, the doctoral student drove to the nearest hospital and had to receive more than 40 stitches.
What he didn’t know, however, was that the sutures holding his skin together would result in botched plastic surgery, sepsis, and a hole in his forehead so deep it would expose his skull.
Shelley Puchalsky, a 40-year-old doctoral student and mother of two from Delaware, was running on a dirt trail when she tripped over her dog and fell face-first into the gravel.
“I stopped taking photos and lost a lot of confidence that I once had,” she said.
Several days after receiving the stitches, Puchalsky was able to remove them, but noticed that his wound was growing and pus was oozing out.
Worried about how this would scar her face, she visited a plastic surgeon who performed a skin graft.
A skin graft is a type of surgery in which doctors take healthy skin from one part of the body and transplant it to the injured part.
But a scar quickly became the least of her worries when she discovered the original stitches were infected and the procedure performed by the plastic surgeon only worsened her condition.
After the graft, his skin began to peel off so much that a three-millimeter-deep hole was created in his forehead, a cut so deep that his skull almost became visible.
Mrs Puchalsky said: “In retrospect, it was a botched surgery.”
Mrs. Puchalsky with her fiancé, David Miller, and their two children.
“My family continues to support me in any way they can,” he said.
The 40-year-old added: “The surgeon did not take any precautions to check for infection before placing the grafts and sutures.
“It pushed the infection toward the structures closest to the bone and allowed the infection to spread over a longer period of time, leading to osteomyelitis of the skull.”
Osteomyelitis is an inflammation of the bone or bone marrow, which occurs when bacteria from nearby infected tissue or an open wound circulate in the blood and settle in the bone, where they multiply.
Mrs Puchalsky added: “After surgery, I started to notice that my skin smelled like it was dying.
“It was a rancid, putrid smell, and my skin was bright red. It also hurt a lot to touch my nose for a long time and I had a hard time wearing my glasses.
“From there, things only got worse, as the infection left the skin falling off.
‘It was terrible. I had eaten my skin.
“There was a huge hole the size of a mango in my forehead that kept getting bigger, and you could actually see all the way to the bone.”
Tired of trying to contact the plastic surgeon about the infection, Mrs. Puchalsky returned to the emergency room.
The doctors were surprised but could not determine what was wrong.
“My family continues to support me in any way they can,” he said.
After seeing 11 doctors over the course of a year, Ms. Puchalsky was finally diagnosed with osteomyelitis after looking at her MRI results.
After tripping while running, Puchalsky drove to the nearest hospital with blood running down his face and had to receive more than 40 stitches. After a follow-up procedure, his skin began to peel off so much that a three-millimeter-deep hole was created in his skull through which the bone almost became visible.
After seeing 11 doctors over a year, an MRI finally revealed that Mrs. Puchalsky had osteomyelitis.
She said: ‘I was diagnosed with a bone inflammation, called osteomyelitis, inside my skull. I later discovered that he was battling sepsis at the time.’
She underwent major surgery in February 2021, where she had to be cut from ear to ear to remove the infection and rework her skin grafts.
Ms. Puchalsky was given Vancomycin IV PICC, a powerful antibiotic used to treat infections caused by bacteria, for four months.
‘This saved my life. I realized I was getting better when my weight started to normalize and I could breathe better,” she said.
But all is not yet well for Puchalsky, as his infection has returned and he requires steroid injections to flatten his scars, which cost $250 (£200) per injection.
This treatment is not covered by his insurance, so he created a GoFundMe page to help with medical expenses.
Mrs. Puchalsky wants to undergo reconstructive surgery on her face in the future before marrying her fiancé, David Miller, a real estate developer.
She said: ‘My family continues to support me in any way they can.
‘The most recent example is the Mother of the Year contest, which I decided to enter to win $20,000 to fund some of my medical expenses.
‘My family and friends encourage me by sharing links and donating to help.
‘These are things that encourage me to face this condition.
“Even the smallest things, like sensing my fatigue or low mood and asking me to take a break and rest, say a lot about your unconditional love and support.”
As a result of the ordeal, Puchalsky said she lost friends and her relationship with her fiancé suffered emotionally and physically.
He stopped going out and working as a real estate agent. She has lost four years of income, totaling $50,000, and her entire experience has cost her more than $100,000.
‘Right now I have a lot of scars. “I wear a lot of makeup, glasses, hats and a wig to cover things up,” she said.
‘I suffer from permanent paralysis on the left side of my face. One year I had to celebrate my oldest son’s birthday in the hospital bed.
“I stopped taking pictures and lost a lot of confidence I once had.”