Teenager is left with huge swelling across her face and can barely see out of one eye after she squeezed a spot on her nose
- The painful swelling is making it hard for Mary Ann Regacho, 17, to see properly
- She first noticed the blackhead on her nose last year and eventually squeezed it
- Days later swelling began which has since spread to cover most of her face
- The young mother’s husband has made a video appeal for help with medical bills
A teenager’s face has swollen up ‘like a balloon’ after being ravaged by a mystery illness that started as a pimple.
Mary Ann Regacho, 17, revealed that popping a blackhead that appeared on the side of her nose last year while at home in Nueva Ecjia, the Philippines, has led to painful swelling that has obscured her vision as it spread across her face.
At first, she believed the stubborn pimple that refused to disappear after weeks was the result of hormonal issues.
The teen gave birth to a baby boy last year and was no stranger to the skin issues puberty and pregnancy can cause.
Eventually she’d had enough and squeezed the spot. Just days later the area became painful and began to swell.
She described the swelling as spreading across her face ‘like a balloon inflating’ and how the lump has reached the corners of her eyes and was reportedly affecting her vision.
Mary Ann Regacho, 17, said her face has swollen up ‘like a balloon’ after being ravaged by a mystery illness that started as a pimple
The painful swelling began after the teenager squeezed a blackhead on the side of her nose which she’d had for several weeks
Regacho has said she feels like her face ‘will never be the same again’ after the serious swelling began more than a year ago
Speaking this week, she said the swelling had spread over the bridge of her nose to her cheeks and forehead, Viral Press reported.
‘I thought it was only a common pimple, but it hurt so much I could not sleep at night. I tried everything to cure it but nothing worked,’ Regacho said.
‘Now, I feel like my face will never be the same again.’
Regacho initially tried herbal remedies to cure the possible infection herself but they had little effect.
Her husband, Albert Salles, works part-time at a neighbour’s farm.
Without a steady income, the couple had been unable to afford to seek medical assistance with the swelling, which now almost covered Regacho’s face.
The teen’s husband works part-time on a neighbour’s farm and has made a video appeal to ‘kind people’ to help with his wife’s medical bills
After almost a year of struggling with the painful swelling, Regacho was able to have it checked at a hospital.
However, the small provincial hospital did not have the proper equipment to diagnose her mysterious ailment so she was transferred to a bigger facility.
Unable to pay for medical bills, her husband has appealed for help.
In a video recorded by an aunt, Salles can be heard asking ‘kind people’ for donations to send Regacho, who sits next to him in the video along with their son, to hospital.
‘We only earn enough for ourselves and our one-year-old baby so I can’t afford her medical bills,’ he said.
The couple are seen in the video, alongside their young son who was born last year