A woman whose nose was bitten off by a dog says she is finally starting to look and feel like the old her after doctors used her forehead to build her a new nose. It has been three-and-a-half years since Jordan Wilson was attacked by a family friend’s Boerboel, when it “lunged” for her nose and wouldn’t let go.

The damage was extreme, with the dog biting off her entire nose and, they believe, swallowing it – leaving Jordan in tremendous pain and with devastating injuries. Since then, the 29-year-old has undergone 16 surgeries to rebuild her face – including nasal reconstruction, using parts of her forehead for her new nose, which left her able to feel her head when touching the area.

Now, the mum-of-two is sharing how she feels about the life-changing incident and all that has followed since the dog, still alive, first sprung at her. “Up until this year, I had a really hard time going out in public, thinking people were wondering why I look the way I look,” said Jordan, a stay-at-home mum.

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“I don’t think I’m ever going to feel completely like myself, but I have been getting compliments from friends and family lately that I am starting to look like myself again. I now have a very different outlook on life and beauty as a whole – there are so many things that are more important than these external things.”

Jordan had been visiting her brother-in-law and his girlfriend when the latter’s Boerboel mauled her in April 2022, having previously responded well to her. Her brother-in-law now pays for expenses related to the numerous surgeries she has faced.

While Jordan reported the attack to the police, who declared the dog dangerous, they did not insist on the owner putting it down – though she was asked to put a sign outside her home declaring that she had a dangerous dog on the property, and had to pay a fine.

Jordan said: “I have mixed feelings about the dog being alive. I don’t necessarily think a dog bites a person one time and should be put down. But I do feel like, because it wasn’t the first time that the dog had bitten someone But it also wasn’t an aggressive attack, either.

“He just leaned in and lunged at my nose, and that was that – it wasn’t a continuous attack.”

Jordan says that, due to the dog’s large size, she wonders if it had been intended playfully rather than aggressively. She explained: “The reason I say it wasn’t super aggressive is because this dog could have killed me. If it had kept biting me, I’d be dead.

“All it did was latch onto my nose, and because the breed is so large and strong, it was able to do the amount of damage that it did. It completely ripped off my entire nose and, from what I was told, he likely swallowed it.

“My right cheek was also badly injured, and there was a lot of blood. I didn’t look in the mirror until after my second surgery, when they had done a skin graft and placed the first tissue expander.”

Following the attack, Jordan was rushed to hospital, where doctors cleaned the wound and she had tissue expanders placed in her forehead – and a skin graft taken from the area.

She then had forehead flap surgery, which involves taking a flap of skin from the forehead, rotating it down to cover the nose, and separating it at a later stage. When the nerve cells were still attached, Jordan could feel a sensation in her forehead whenever she would touch her new nose – though this has since been disconnected.

She said: “When I would touch my nose, it would feel like I was touching my forehead. Now, it fully feels like I’m touching my nose. It’s really crazy how resilient our bodies are, and how the nerves eventually find their way back.”

Jordan has also had multiple surgeries to thin and debulk her new nose to better shape it. Jordan even reports that she gets snot as normal, though she can’t pick her nose because of the thick cartilage and thin nostrils she has been left with.

Jordan said: “I’m currently feeling good overall. My forehead is still a bit sore from the expander removal – it was a lot of stretching and moving of skin. My whole head has this strange sensation, kind of like when your foot falls asleep: that mix of numbness and pain.

“It’s such a weird feeling. At this point, I have about three more surgeries ahead – mostly to continue refining and shaping my nose – until I’m truly happy with the result.”

And despite all she has been through, she remains an animal lover – though she is always on her guard, and particularly when her children are nearby. Jordan said: “I still love all animals, but I’m much more cautious around them now, knowing how vulnerable we really are.

“When my kids are around dogs, I find myself even more protective and anxious than I am for myself. Not just because of my own experience, but from hearing the stories of so many others who’ve gone through similar trauma.

“Through all of this – while it’s been incredibly hard and I still have days where I ask ‘why did this happen?’ – I do my best to find meaning and turn it into something positive. I share my story and surgical journey online to bring both awareness and comfort to others going through similar experiences.

“Facial trauma can be extremely difficult to cope with, but seeing others who understand can make you feel less alone.”