“My old face was removed”: Katie Piper opens up about having her face reconstructed

She said her daughter was afraid of her face.

Katie Piper has opened up about having her face reconstructed after an acid attack. The mum revealed that her surgical team had to remove her old face during surgery. Since the attack in 2008, the activist has had over 300 surgeries to help reconstruct her face. Speaking on Lorraine Kelly's podcast, Katie explained that all of her old face was removed after the attack. She explained that her nose was rebuilt using her upper right rib. Her eyelids were built from her groin and she had hair transplants to bring her eyebrows back. But that wasn't all. The mum shared, "What I had to do was have all of my old face removed because the tissue was dead and would have gotten infected." "They had to start from the beginning with a man-made dermal substitute. "I always think of the analogy of a house, when you get the foundations before you get the bricks and the scaffolding." She explained that her burn was so deep that it went down to the skeleton. "It was a very, very deep burn," she shared. "Because it's a corrosive substance, you think with fire you can put it out and maybe minimise the damage, but with me, all four layers of the skin were destroyed." "This foundation is made from collagen and elastin taken from a cow. My face is made out of a cow," she quipped. Katie praised her surgeons for helping her and reconstructing her face, but she still faces many struggles. Her daughter Belle previously told her that she frightened her, which is something that broke Katie's heart. "It was quite sad when I was having some eye surgery and my eldest was like, ‘I don’t really want you to kiss me goodnight, I think you’re scary’."