A teenage girl’s face ravaged after she squeezed a blackhead on the side of her nose in Philippines.
The mystery illness started when Mary Ann Regacho, 17, had squeezed a blackhead on the side of her nose which she’d had for several weeks last year.
At first, she believed the stubborn pimple that refused to disappear after weeks was the result of hormonal issues as she had given birth to a baby boy last year.
Eventually she’d had enough and squeezed the spot. Just days later the area became painful and began to swell. Regacho revealed that popping a blackhead that appeared on her nose, has led to painful swelling that has obscured her vision as it spread across her face.
She described the swelling as spreading across her face ‘like a balloon inflating’ and how the lump has reached the corners of her eyes and was reportedly affecting her vision.
Speaking this week, she said the swelling had spread over the bridge of her nose to her cheeks and forehead, Viral Press reported.
“I thought it was only a common pimple, but it hurt so much I could not sleep at night. I tried everything to cure it but nothing worked,” Regacho said.
“Now, I feel like my face will never be the same again.”
Regacho initially tried herbal remedies to cure the possible infection herself but they had little effect.
Her husband, Albert Salles, works part-time at a neighbour’s farm.
Without a steady income, the couple had been unable to afford to seek medical assistance with the swelling, which now almost covered Regacho’s face.
After almost a year of struggling with the painful swelling, Regacho was able to have it checked at a hospital.
However, the small provincial hospital did not have the proper equipment to diagnose her mysterious ailment so she was transferred to a bigger facility.
Unable to pay for medical bills, her husband has appealed for help.
In a video recorded by an aunt, Salles can be heard asking ‘kind people’ for donations to send Regacho, who sits next to him in the video along with their son, to hospital.
‘We only earn enough for ourselves and our one-year-old baby so I can’t afford her medical bills,’ he said.
