Brooklinn Khoury was just starting her career as a model when her cousin’s pit bull when the dog attacked and bit off her upper lip. In the year that has since followed, Khoury has remained steadfast on getting back what she lost.
A young model who was terribly disfigured when she was attacked by a relative’s dog is ready to show of her new smile after undergoing a half a dozen surgeries and refusing to give up on getting back what she lost.
Brooklinn Khoury was just starting her career as a model when her entire life changed. She was with her cousin’s pit bull when the dog attacked and bit off her upper lip.
“He was hanging off of my mouth,” Khoury, 23, tells Inside Edition.
She snapped a photo looking at herself in the mirror after the incident, an image that now serves as a gruesome reminder of just how far she would need to go to heal.
“You could see the fear in my eyes, ‘oh my God, that’s what I look like,’” she says. “’How do you fix this? How do you fix this?’ I didn’t realize he had taken off my whole lip.
She’s since made an incredibly transformation after undergoing six surgeries.
“I think if you were to tell me a year ago today that I would look the way that I do, I wouldn’t believe you,” Khoury says.
The surgeries were performed by Dr. Nicholas Do. Do took skin and nerves from Khoury's arm to create a fully functional new upper lip, which Khoury can completely feel.
“In plastic surgery we can’t exactly recreate what was missing but if we can mimic it enough, it should almost be indistinguishable to the general public,” Do tells Inside Edition.
After every surgery, Do would make a mold of Khoury’s face to track her healing and understand what needed to be repaired next.
The journey has been a monumental one for Khoury, who remained laser focused on the journey ahead.
“Just having to look at myself in the mirror and having to tell myself and believe that what I am seeing is not the final product and loving myself regardless of how I look just from the inside out,” she says.
Khoury is almost fully healed and loves smiling from ear to ear. She is expected to have one more surgery later this month.
When told that she hasn’t lost her smile, Khoury enthusiastically agrees.
“No,” she says, “I’ve gained it!”
