Mercury PressA mum-of-three lost half her face after she fell on hot curling tongs while suffering an epileptic seizure.
Brittney Sullivan, 32, was in the middle of styling her hair when she had an epileptic fit, leading her to collapse and fall onto the hot device.
Brittney was found face down and unconscious by her eight-year-old daughter, who immediately rang her grandparents.
Mercury PressWhen Makennah Reign found her mum, from Cleburne, Texas, face down on the bathroom floor, she called Brittney’s mum and dad.
Her parents came to the house immediately, with her mum taking her to hospital where she woke up and found out the true extent of her injuries.
Brittney said, of the moment she found out what had happened:
When I found out the extent of my injuries I cried and thought, ‘I’m never going to be beautiful’.
A million things went through my mind. Was my husband David, 36, going to leave me? Would my kids be scared of me?
Mercury PressBrittney was left with third degree burns and needed a total of six operations, including a full skin graft. She also had to have a skin-expander inserted.
At the time the accident happened, the mum-of-three recalled how she was getting ready for her job as a transaction coordinator in January 2018.
She explained:
I was standing in my bathroom, curling my hair getting ready for work. The next thing I knew, I’d woken up in hospital.
My daughter Makennah, who was eight at the time, found me on the bathroom floor and got in touch with my parents. My dad took the kids to school and my mum took me to hospital.
Despite initially being scared how people would react to her, Brittney now says she has learned to live with her scars and is now proud to show the ‘beauty within me’.
Mercury PressBrittney says she is proud of each of her children, who she says have learned so much from their mum having had such an ‘extreme thing’ happen to her.
She added that Makennah is her ‘life saver’, who didn’t freak out and did exactly what she was trained to do in case of an emergency.
Brittney spent a total of 12 days in hospital and is now on the road to recovery, even miraculously having a 20/20 vision despite her curlers burning her right eyelid.
The inspirational mum has now started an online support group called Beauty Within where she advises and inspires people to look beyond her scars.
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A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).