Advertisement
Home News Real Life

My deformed face scared my son

Rosetta Wardlaw battles to keep the tears at bay as she describes the worst day of her life. Surgery to correct her face had failed, leaving her deformities worse than ever. When her young son Loughlan (10) came running up to the car, excited about giving his mum a big cuddle after her hospital stay, he was so shocked by her appearance that he ran away.

Advertisement

“He couldn’t handle how I looked,” says an emotional Rosetta (37), as she recalls that heartbreaking moment four years ago. For Rosetta, Loughlan’s reaction made her determined to try once more to get a new face – one that would not draw so many wide-eyed stares from strangers. It’s an ordeal she has lived with for years.

When she was born in 1972, Rosetta was a beautiful baby girl, with no sign of the rare genetic condition fibrous dysplasia. But when she was 10 years old, her face began to appear lopsided, with the right side of her jaw growing faster than the rest. She was diagnosed with fibrous dysplasia and told her face would even out over time. “For 15 years I waited for my body to catch up with my face, but it never did,” she sighs.

When Rosetta was a teenager, her high-school classmates started teasing her, nicknaming her “Bubbles” because one side of her face protruded so much. Despite her condition, Rosetta found love, had children and got married. But she admits she was constantly struggling with her appearance.

In 2005, she had a bone graft from her hip that surgeons hoped would help to correct her face. However, much to Rosetta’s despair, the operation failed to fix the problem and two others were also unsuccessful. The Flaxmere woman was left looking worse than before. Then, six weeks after the surgery, her marriage broke up. “The graft left me badly disfigured. I was taking 32 tablets a day and having Botox injections every six weeks,” she says. But now, thanks to a surgeon at Hastings Hospital who is prepared to perform one of the world’s first face implant operations of its kind, there is hope for Rosetta.

Advertisement

“I could’ve just sat back and accepted the way I looked, but I didn’t,” she says. “In 2006, I got a new surgeon who contacted a company in Christchurch to make a titanium plate. It’s like scaffolding to fill out my face, but it’s for my health as well.” Rosetta cannot produce saliva and gets migraines from the resulting dehydration. She also suffers from speech problems and has no sense of smell. Her face is so damaged that she can touch her tongue if she puts her finger up her left nostril.

Although she tries to stay positive, Rosetta is on medication for depression. “The worst thing about it is that my kids get picked on because of how I look,” says Rosetta, who is also mum to Saphire-Crystal  (14) and Tyrone (18). “oy daughter is more blase, but my boys are staunch when it comes to their mum.”

Rosetta is reluctant to socialise in public because of people’s reactions. “I went out a couple of weeks ago and had to leave because I couldn’t take the staring.” However, Rosetta hasn’t let her shyness get in the way of her dream of becoming a fashion designer. Attending this year’s Air NZ Fashion Week in Auckland as part of her fashion design course was a brave move for Rosetta. But rubbing shoulders with the city’s trendsetters was made easier because her fellow students were there to protect her. “If one of our group saw somebody give me a sideways glance, they’d distract me, which was really good,” she smiles.

Rosetta’s face implant will happen in about two months – but it will be just the start of a long, difficult transformation. It will be six months before the work and healing will be complete and the final result is revealed. Despite this, Rosetta can’t wait for the surgery to begin.

Advertisement

“It will be worth it. I don’t mind acting as a guinea pig if it helps children in Africa with parts of their face missing to have the same operation some day,” she says. Rosetta hopes her courageous journey will inspire other people who have huge hurdles to overcome. “No matter what life throws at you, it is possible to rise above it.”

Vicky Tyler

Related stories


Get The Australian Woman’s Weekly NZ home delivered!  

Subscribe and save up to 38% on a magazine subscription.

Advertisement
Advertisement