Chelsea and Westminster patient's "true story of courage"
Katie Piper, a Chelsea and Westminster Hospital patient whose life was saved by the expertise of staff in the Burns Service following a horrific acid attack, has published a book about her experiences.
Katie, a model and aspiring TV presenter, has always been quick to pay tribute to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital staff who saved her life, rebuilt her face and continue to provide ongoing care in a number of different specialties.
After suffering severe burns in the attack on March 31 2008, she discarded her anonymity to tell her amazing story of personal courage in a Channel 4 documentary Katie: My Beautiful Face, which was first broadcast in October 2009 and has now been screened in 15 different countries and nominated for a BAFTA.
Her new book Beautiful is a harrowing but ultimately inspiring story of Katie’s courage in fighting to rebuild her life.
She is currently filming a four-part Channel 4 documentary Katie: My Beautiful Friends which will be broadcast this spring and runs her own charity, The Katie Piper Foundation, to raise awareness of the plight of burns victims and others.
The depth of the burns from the sulphuric acid penetrated all layers of the skin on Katie’s face and elsewhere on her body. The extent of her burns was so severe that they destroyed all four layers of the skin down to the fat.
Surgeon Mr Mohammad Jawad used an artificial skin substitute to rebuild the epidermis and dermis layers on Katie’s face before grafting skin from her back and bottom onto her face.
Katie says: " I owe my life to the doctors, nurses and all the other staff in the Burns Service at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. I would have died without their amazing efforts immediately after I was attacked and they have supported me every step of the way during my treatment.
" Coming to terms with the fact that my life as I knew it before the acid attack was over, and that my facial appearance had changed forever, has been incredibly difficult. I wouldn’t have been able to rebuild my life without the support of all the staff at Chelsea and Westminster
Katie's book Beautiful is published by Ebury Press and is in bookshops now, priced £6.99.
March 11, 2011