Long Island man who lost nose protecting girl gets reconstructive surgery: 'I feel like before'
Long Island man receives life-changing surgery
A Long Island man left disfigured after being attacked earlier this year received some life-changing surgery. FOX 5 NY's Antwan Lewis has the story.
LONG ISLAND - A Long Island man left disfigured after being attacked earlier this year received some life-changing surgery. Tyson Carter, 41, says the reconstructive procedure has dramatically changed his quality of life.
"Probably a week or two after it initially happened, and I didn't realize how bad it was. I just knew that part of it was missing," Carter said.
The backstory:
Carter was the victim of a vicious attack and thought he'd never have the confidence to show his face in public again. Back in January, he was beaten by two men at a bus stop in Brentwood after he tried to do a good deed – stepping in to defend a young girl being harassed. One of the attackers bit off Carter's nose.
"I told him, you know, maybe you guys ought to just move along, and then things kind of just went downhill from there," Carter said.
Doctors at Long Island Jewish Medical Center reconstructed Carter's nose using a 3D model with clay of skin grafts from his forehead and tissue from Carter's arm. Dr. Laurent Ganry also studied selfies and pictures of Carter before performing the procedure.
"More than half of the nose was removed," Dr. Ganry said. "Well, we could not just mirror the right for the left, something was missing in the middle."
What they're saying:
"For me, the biggest issue was more the fact that I need my glasses to see and, you know, with so much of it being gone, I couldn't wear them," Carter said.
Carter's mother, June, admitted to being worried about the outcome of the surgery.
"When I saw it, I was like, there's no way that's going to be corrected because, how much of his nose was bitten off?" she said.
Carter has one more surgery to go once all the swelling has gone down.
"Someone who hasn't seen me for a while looks in my face, unless you really look, you can't even tell that anything happened," Carter said.
"The best compliment was him saying, ‘I feel like before' and that's perfect. That's exactly what we are aiming in this kind of things," Ganry said.