Glamorous soccer mom, 40, from Delaware, has her forehead sewn back together after failed stitches caused a flesh-eating infection

A woman had to have her forehead sewn back together after dozens of stitches led to a flesh-eating infection that left a hole in her head.

In September 2019, Shelley Puchalsky, a 40-year-old from Delaware, was jogging with her dog on a dirt road when she tripped over her pet and fell face first onto gravel.

With blood streaming down her face, the PhD student drove herself to the nearest hospital and had to get more than forty stitches.

Little did she know that the stitches holding her skin together would result in botched plastic surgery, blood poisoning, and a hole in her forehead so deep it exposed her skull.

Several days after receiving the stitches, Ms. Puchalsky was able to have them removed, but noticed her wound was growing and pus was oozing from it.

Concerned about how this would damage her face, she visited a plastic surgeon who performed a skin graft.

A skin graft is a type of surgery in which doctors take healthy skin from one part of the body and transplant it to the injured part.

But a scar soon became her last concern when she discovered that the original stitches were infected and the procedure performed by the plastic surgeon only worsened her condition.

After the transplant, her skin began to peel so much that a hole three millimeters deep appeared in her forehead – a gash so deep that her skull was almost visible.

Ms Puchalsky said: ‘In retrospect it was a botched operation.’

The 40-year-old added: ‘The surgeon took no precautions to check for infection before placing the grafts and stitches.

‘It pushed the infection further down into the structures closer to the bone and allowed the infection to spread for a longer period of time, resulting in osteomyelitis of the skull.’

Osteomyelitis is an inflammation of the bone or bone marrow, which occurs when bacteria from nearby infected tissue or an open wound circulate in the blood and settle in the bone, where they multiply.

Ms Puchalsky added: ‘After the operation I noticed that it smelled like my skin was dying.

‘It was a rancid, putrid smell and my skin was bright red. It also hurt for a long time to touch my nose, and I had trouble wearing my glasses.

‘From then on it just got worse as the skin just fell off due to the infection.

‘It was horrible. It had eaten through my skin.

‘There was a huge hole the size of a mango in my forehead that kept getting bigger, and you could see right down to the bone.’

Ms. Puchalsky grew tired of contacting the plastic surgeon about the infection and returned to the emergency room.

The doctors were shocked, but could not figure out what was wrong with her.

After seeing 11 doctors over the course of a year, an MRI finally revealed that Ms. Puchalsky was suffering from osteomyelitis.

She said: ‘I was diagnosed with a bone infection called osteomyelitis in my skull. Then I found out that I was suffering from sepsis at the time.’

In February 2021, she underwent major surgery that required cutting from ear to ear to remove the infection and rework her skin grafts.

Ms. Puchalsky was given Vancomycin IV PICC, a powerful antibiotic used to treat infections caused by bacteria, for four months.

‘This saved my life. “I noticed I was doing better when my weight started to normalize, and I could breathe easier,” she said.

But Ms. Puchalsky is still not doing well because her infection has returned and she needs steroid injections to smooth out her scars, which cost $250 per injection.

This treatment is not covered by her insurance, so she has created a GoFundMe page to help with medical costs.

In the future, Ms. Puchalsky plans to undergo reconstructive surgery on her face before marrying her fiancé, David Miller, a real estate developer.

She said: “My family continues to support me in every way possible.

‘The most recent example is the Mother of the Year competition, which I decided to enter to win $20,000 to finance part of my medical costs.

“My family and friends are encouraging me by sharing links and donating to help.

‘It’s things like this that give me the courage to deal with this condition.

“Even the littlest things, like sensing my fatigue or mood swings and asking for a break and rest, speak volumes about their unconditional love and support.”

As a result of the ordeal, Ms. Puchalsky said she has lost friends and her relationship with her fiancé has suffered emotionally and physically.

She stopped going out and working as a real estate agent. She has lost four years of income, a total of $50,000, and her entire experience has cost her more than $100,000.

‘Right now I have a lot of scars. “I wear a lot of makeup, glasses, hats and a wig to hide things,” she said.

‘I suffer from permanent paralysis on the left side of my face. One year I had to celebrate my eldest son’s birthday in the hospital bed.

“I’ve stopped taking pictures of myself and have lost a lot of the self-confidence I once had.”