Survivor stories

Lucky was attacked by acid in open daylight by her husband on her way home from a garment factory where she worked. At age 26, she is a single mother supporting her two children, and her husband of 15 years in marriage has not been seen since the attack.

Fortunately Lucky was assisted by people on the street who helped her wash out the acid, which was thrown on her face, with water. The outstanding feature of acid burns is the prolonged duration of tissue destruction that continues until all the acid is either inactivated or neutralised. Due in large part to the educational campaigns conducted by the Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF) in Bangladesh, people now know that washing out acid from affected areas of the body with water reduces the inflicted damage considerably. In some cases it has meant that eye-sight is not lost, and that surgery is not even required.

“My husband is a drug addict, and has been for a long time. He works with me in the same factory, but all of the time he asks me for money and for things. He usually beats me to get my money. On that day he again was asking me for money, and I had said no. That day I went to work, finished work, and when I went to leave he was waiting for me on my way home when he attacked me with acid straight in my face.
I have no idea where my husband is now, neither do the police”.

“I was afraid of the operation. It is the first time I have seen an operation theater complex like this. I’ve never had experience of this. I was afraid I would not wake-up after the operation, and as I have never had an operation before I did not know what it involved. I never knew an operation would be needed to heal my face. I never thought my skin would be removed and put on my face.

Now I am in a lot of pain. It is very painful – my face, my eyes, and my arm where the skin was taken. But I hope to recover just like before, before I had acid thrown on me. I am looking forward to that.”

Lucky underwent surgery on her eyelids in less then ten days following her attack. The photo above was taken two days following the surgery. She was very hesitant about getting surgery done as the process of anesthesia bewildered and frightened her, and upon the assessment with Dr Ron Hiles, when asked whether she wanted the surgery she had initially declined.

According to Dr Ron Hiles, “This case is quite typical, that we’ve just performed. It is a wife who was attacked by her husband. This happened 12 days ago, and we’ve learnt that by treating a lot of these cases that there are very considerable benefits from operating early. If we wait there is a greater chance of long term disability and disfigurement and particularly in terms of the eyelids, which we have been operating on.”