Plastic Surgeons Donate Skills to Domestic Violence Victims
Facial Plastic Surgery, General, Rhinoplasty Comments (3)
One of the most puzzling statistics known is why women who have been mercilessly beaten by a husband or boyfriend, change their minds in almost half the cases.
Many refuse to testify against their abusers to help send the creeps to jail. (More..)
Experts say it’s because the women have low-self esteem and see no future for themselves.
Some plastic surgeons are stepping in to donate to many of these women a new, brighter future if they will only do one thing first – leave the abuser. And stay away from him.
Says Kathy Griffin, spokesperson for Face to Face, an organization started by the American Association of Facial and Plastic Reconstructive Surgeons (AAFPRS):
“..when abused women look in the mirror and no longer see any traces of their abuse, it’s an important step in moving on to a much happier and healthier life.”
You have to admit: who would not be intimidated during a job interview if you had a bashed in nose, broken teeth or other facial scars?
Operating hand-in-glove with the National Council for Domestic Violence, a surgical program known as Face to Face offers certain victims of battering free consultations and plastic surgery.
According to the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, most battering victims have injuries to their face, neck and head.
One such East Coast victim had been struck for 17 years, giving her a “boxer’s nose” along with breathing troubles.
Repeated fist blows also caused the tendons in her lower eyelids to loosen and then droop, giving the 42-year-old woman and mother of two a tired, haggard look.
But a New York City board-certified plastic surgeon used a slice of the woman’s skull bone to rebuild the bridge of her nose.
The surgeon, Andrew Jacono, M.D., also used ear cartilage to reshape the woman’s nasal tip.
Dr. Jacono also tightened and repaired her sagging lower eyelids in a lower blepharoplasty.
The $40,000 surgery did not cost the woman one cent.
Often, battering victims need a lot of surgery on their noses, like the woman depicted. (The injury is also known as a saddle nose deformity.)
Face to Face has about 300 plastic surgeons.
But before any battering victim can have facial surgery, she must show she has been out of the abusive relationship for at least a year.
admin @ September 7, 2009
i will be sixty years old next year. wear my age well on most days. i was married to a man for almost thirty years. the days he didn’t beat me he verbally did so. i know i stayed with him because all my life my mother and other people told me i was ugly. my husband busted my eardrum and gave me more black eyes and bloody noses than i can remember. my nose needs work and the sagging takes away the youth i didn’t get to enjoy while being abused. i would be eternally gratefully to have a few of those years back! anxiously awaiting your
answer! thank you patricia davis
This is very interesting and a great incentive to those females having a difficult time leaving an abusive relationship. What a great way to start a new, fresh, toxin free life; Free of domestic violence and free from physical reminders of past abuse.
Although I may seem beautiful to most. I am not beautiful inside because of the constant abuse as a child in all ways and I would definitely like to get those years back the abuse continued in various boyfriends where I was portrayed as a dog and because I was able to hide my beatings and self esteem through acting and makeup I never fully got the care package i deserve plastic surgery should be facially, and throughout the body. HOw I am suppose to look is not here …………and i want what i lost back.