Young man loses half of his skull after severe sinusitis

A 25 year old American girl removed half of the skull on account of a severe sinusitis. Natasha Gunther, 25, underwent a emergency neurosurgery after worse in symptoms.

“I kept going to my doctor, who prescribed antibiotics for a normal sinus infection. But I got so sick that I threw up a lot and got horrible migraines,” explained Natasha.

@natasha_gunther This is the story on how I lost half my skull 😌 (don’t worry I’ll get it back soon) #tbi #traumaticbraininjury #brainsurgery #braininjury #sinusinfection #sinussurgery #sinuses #brain #craniotomy #craniectomy #skullremoval # stanford #speechtherapy #hospitallife #skull #badluck #viral #fyp #surgery #surgerycheck #surgeryrecovery #tbisurvivor #tbiawareness #fyp ♬ original sound – Natasha Alyena Gunther

The California resident shared her story on TikTok to warn that frames that seem “simple” have to be closely monitored. “It all started because I had a lot of sinus infections in the last year. I had five or six of them,” she said.

Surgery

The emergency surgery took place on December 12 of last year, after she was forced by her parents to have a CT scan. That same night, she made the craniotomy.

Surgeons discovered a large amount of bacteria in the young woman’s skull, caused by sinus infections. “This mass moved my brain 9 millimeters to the right,” he said.

“They removed about 12 to 14 cm of my skull. I stayed in the hospital for another five weeks and also had a new sinus surgery. The surgeons told me I would have been dead within a week if I hadn’t gone to the hospital when I did.”

She will undergo further surgery this year to reconstruct her skull. The same part taken from her body will be used.