A woman who popped a pimple in the ‘triangle of death’ is warning people to not repeat her mistake after it left her face frozen on one side.
Lindsay deOliveira woke up one morning with an average looking blemish near her nose and, as many would, decided to sort it out by popping it.
While the 32-year-old had thought it would go away as normal, instead the pimple and surrounding area started to swell, before becoming drastically worse.
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Lindsay’s pimple was located in the ‘triangle of death’ – an area spanning from the nose to the corners of the mouth.
Picking pimples in this area can introduce bacteria and cause a severe infection – as in Lindsay’s case.
“It looked like a regular pimple, between my lip and my nose,” Lindsay, from Georgia, US, told Need To Know.
“There was nothing out of the ordinary at all – that’s what makes it so wild that this even happened.
“There was nothing there the day before – we even did professional family pictures on Sunday.”
Dermatologists recommend avoiding popping pimples in this area.
Lindsay said the pimple appeared on a Monday morning, when she popped it.
The next day, it started swelling and she headed to urgent care when her face started to droop.
She was given antibiotics by doctors, but visited urgent care twice again the next day as it got progressively worse.
By Thursday, she was in the ER.
She said she never expected the situation to escalate so much.
Lindsay added: “It was just like any other [pimple] – I had taken a shower and then wanted it to go away so I handled it like most people do.
“In the ER, they initially thought I was having an allergic reaction – that’s how swollen my face and lips were.”
Doctors told Lindsay that she had developed cellulitis, a common, potentially serious bacterial skin infection affecting the deeper skin layers, causing redness, swelling, warmth, and pain.
Cellulitis needs prompt antibiotic treatment to prevent spread to the bloodstream.
Lindsay said she “couldn’t move” half of her face and she was given an MRI to make sure her sinuses, eyes and brain were not affected.
She added: “We could see my body had walled off the infection, thankfully.
“I was given two heavy duty antibiotics in the ER, so totally changed off the others I was on as they weren’t working.
“I was given Amoxi-Clav and Bactrim before I even left the ER.
“Two hours later, the swelling went way down.”
Lindsay said the cellulitis “went quickly” and her face was “almost back to normal” in a few days.
However, the antibiotics made her unwell and symptoms lasted almost six weeks.
Lindsay said she’s now “returned to normal entirely”, though with a minor scar.
She said: “I can quite easily cover [it] with the tiniest dab of makeup, and most days don’t even bother.”
When it comes to warning others about popping pimples in the future, Lindsay added: “Please don’t.
“Never again.”
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