WARNING: Article contains graphic photos.
A mom in Texas says she won’t let an injury that required surgery keep her from feeling beautiful inside and out.
Brittney Sullivan, of Cleburne, was getting ready to go to work on Jan. 17, 2018 when she underwent a sudden epileptic seizure and fell unconscious on top of her curling iron, which ended up severely injuring half of her face.
“The next thing I knew, I’d woken up in the hospital,” said Sullivan, a 32-year-old mother of three.
Sullivan was quickly sent over to the emergency room after being found lying on the ground by her daughter, who called her grandparents for help. Doctors later told her she had suffered third-degree burns which would require skin grafts.
Sullivan has gone through several surgeries, including a number on her nose, lip and eyelids. She also needed new skin for skin grafts, which doctors were able to obtain by using a tissue expander on the side of her face.
“I cried and thought, ‘I’m never going to be beautiful,’” said Sullivan, adding that she was worried if her husband would still find her pretty, or if her children would be scared of her.
“I just got on my knees and prayed — asking God to give me an answer and telling me what to do,” she told WFAA in 2018, just weeks after the accident.
Eventually, Sullivan said she was “tired of being insecure.” And upon exiting the hospital after a nearly two-week stay, she made the decision to stay positive — and even booted up a Facebook group, called Beauty Within Brittney, to share her journey and provide support for others in similar situations.
https://www.facebook.com/beautywithinbrittney/photos/a.1492380380883896/1993814067407189/?type=3
“I’m going to be beautiful and show everyone the beauty within me,” she said.
Sullivan has undergone a few different operations, including skin grafts over one half of her face, along with operations to repair her eyelids, nose and lip in January 2019.
Sullivan said just recently she had her top and bottom eyelids redone, and still says she has 20/20 vision.
“I’m going to be beautiful and show everyone the beauty within me,” Sullivan said to herself following the accident.
And even now, she says she still uses a curling iron in the morning to get ready.
“It’s not scary using heated hair stylers — I’m a lot more cautious but not scared,” she said, per The Sun.
“I teach my daughters the dangers, but I don’t want them to be afraid because of what happened to me.”
