Brooklinn Khoury was establishing herself as a rising social media influencer and professional skateboarder when a single moment changed her life forever. In November 2020, while visiting her cousin in Arizona, the then 20-year-old was attacked by her cousin’s eight-year-old pit bull named Diesel. What began as what she thought might be a minor bite quickly revealed itself to be catastrophic. The dog’s teeth sank deep into her face, and when it finally released its grip after nearly a minute of clamping down, Khoury discovered that her entire upper lip had been torn away.
The immediate aftermath was a blur of shock and confusion. Khoury described the moment she realized the extent of the damage, saying that when she checked her phone’s selfie camera expecting to see a deep cut, she instead found that everything from her nose down was completely ripped off. She was rushed to a local hospital, where she waited hours for a plastic surgeon to arrive while sitting alone due to COVID-19 visitor restrictions. The first surgeon she saw delivered devastating news: her lip could not be reattached. Instead, they performed emergency surgery to close the wound by flipping the skin from inside her mouth to the outside, leaving her without an upper lip and with severe scarring.
In the days following the attack, Khoury made a decision that would define her recovery. Rather than retreating in silence, she began documenting her experience on social media. What started as a desperate search for community—she felt completely alone in the hospital and wanted to find others who might understand what she was going through—evolved into something far more powerful. Her vulnerability and transparency resonated with people around the world, and her following grew from 20,000 to more than one million as she chronicled not just the physical aspects of her recovery, but the emotional toll of living with a severe facial difference in a society obsessed with appearance.
Finding a surgeon willing to take on her case proved to be one of the greatest challenges of her recovery. For over a year, Khoury searched for someone qualified to reconstruct what had been lost. Finally, in November 2021, she found Dr. Nicholas Do, a plastic surgeon who was willing to attempt what many others said was too difficult. Over the course of 14 months, Dr. Do performed multiple complex surgeries, some lasting around 20 hours. In a groundbreaking approach to her reconstruction, he took skin and nerves from her forearm and used them to build a fully functional new upper lip. Each surgery presented unique challenges, but Dr. Do maintained a focus on the overall harmony of her face rather than treating each feature in isolation.
The surgical journey was grueling. Khoury underwent a total of seven reconstructive surgeries, with the final major procedure completed in February 2023. Some surgeries involved recreating specific features like the Cupid’s bow and the central columns of her lip to give her a natural appearance. Recovery from each procedure meant weeks of swelling, waiting for sensation to return, and managing the emotional weight of seeing herself in the mirror at each stage. Yet through it all, Khoury demonstrated a remarkable resilience. She documented each milestone, sharing before and after photos that showed not just the physical transformation, but her own journey toward self-acceptance.
As her surgeries progressed and her appearance gradually returned to something approaching normal, Khoury continued to advocate for others living with facial differences. She has become a beacon of hope for people dealing with trauma and disfigurement, using her platform to encourage self-love and acceptance. Her message has evolved beyond her own story to encompass broader themes of resilience, embracing imperfection, and finding strength in vulnerability. She has also pursued additional cosmetic refinements, including consulting on a lip tattoo in October 2023 to further perfect the appearance of her reconstructed lip.
Four years after the attack, Khoury reflected on her journey with a perspective shaped by both gratitude and hard-won wisdom. She acknowledged that the experience had been full of every emotion imaginable—happiness, growth, but also the ongoing challenge of living in a society that isn’t accustomed to facial differences. Yet she has come to love what she sees in the mirror, not because it matches what she looked like before, but because she has learned to embrace the person she has become through the ordeal.
Today, Khoury continues her careers in skateboarding and modeling, embodying a message of resilience and strength. She reminds others that healing from trauma is possible, that community support can make a profound difference, and that beauty—both physical and otherwise—is far more complex and meaningful than society often suggests. Her transformation stands as a testament not just to modern reconstructive surgery, but to the power of human resilience in the face of devastating circumstances.