Ana's Dog Bite Facial Reconstruction

I am creating this fundraiser because folks have been reaching out to me asking me to set one up. In all honesty, I feel super weird and uncomfortable doing so, but I am so appreciative that the community wants to help with my medical costs. Thank you!

My name is Ana, and on January 18th I was bitten in the face by a large dog. It happened in a split second, and just like that, my nose was split in half. The front of my nose was split through the cartilage down to the bone, and my left nostril was completely split in half. I'm looking at a 1-3 year recovery, and ongoing expenses not covered by insurance.

I was rushed to the ER at Salem Hospital. There, my injury was evaluated and I was told I would need to be transferred to a different hospital because of the severity of the injury.

This is a note from my medical file at Salem Hospital:

"Laceration does appear to involve the cartilage. Given that this is high risk for poor healing and is in a cosmetic area we did feel that would be most appropriate for a plastic surgeon to repair this. Unfortunately our plastic surgeon on-call was unavailable and we are unable to reach them. We did speak to our surgical service and they also felt that she would be most suited to have plastic surgical repair as well. We were able to get patient accepted for transfer to Lahey Burlington."

This is from my medical file at Lahey, post-op:

"The laceration measured approximately 4cm and was full thickness through the cartilage of the left lower lateral. Repair was performed first of the nasal mucosa, which was closed with 5-0 Chromic gut suture. Cartilage was repaired with 5-0 PDS suture. Nasal skin was then reapproximated with 6-0 Prolene suture."

Long story short:

What I need help with:

Expenses to date:

Upcoming confirmed expenses: Starting March 22nd, I will be receiving laser treatments for the scarring. My surgeon has projected 6 sessions at $400 each, for a total of $2400.

Confirmed out-of-pocket expenses so far: $3603.07

I've set the fundraiser to $3700 to cover the fees GoFundMe takes from donations.

Future expenses: It's going to be a long road, and more scar management treatments may be coming up. After the 1-year mark, I may also be looking at surgical revisions to correct the bulky scarring inside my nostrils/along my septum, and potential corrections to the scarring on my left nostril. These may range from a couple thousand to upwards of $10k. I will post details as they come up.