Katie Piper reveals she is in hospital for another surgery on her eyelid

Katie Piper has revealed that she is in hospital for another surgery on her eyelid after suffering an acid attack in 2008.

The activist and presenter, 37, was staying positive as she shared an update with followers while sitting in a hospital bed on Tuesday. 

She explained how she was having a planned skin graft operation on her right eye after the acid attack left her blind in that eye.  

Speaking on her Instagram Story she said: ‘Morning lovely people, I have a very optimistic affirmation for you today. 30th March, what happened in the past is done with. It is the actions that you take next that will shape the rest of your life.

‘I think that’s a really exciting affirmation, knowing that there’s so much more in front of you than there is behind you. I think sometimes the past is best left where it belongs.’

She then added: ‘Thank-you for all the messages, I am fine. I’m having a planned operation to my eyelid. I’m having another skin graft to my right eye.’  

On Monday she also shared an empowering message on her grid as she prepared for a workout which read: ‘Having a strong and positive start to the week before I head in for another op tomorrow!’ 

Under the post Katie was also inundated with messages from followers who wished her well ahead of her latest surgery. 

Katie survived a sulphuric acid attack orchestrated by her ex-boyfriend in 2008, which caused significant damage to her face and left her blind in one eye.

The horrifying attack was organised by her obsessive ex-partner, Daniel Lynch, but was carried out by accomplice Stefan Sylvestre in a pre-planned street attack outside her north London home.

Lynch was subsequently given two life terms behind bars, while Sylvestre served 6-years of his own life sentence. He was released in 2018.  

Katie underwent more than 40 operations to treat her burns, including pioneering surgery that involved completely removing the damaged skin from her face and replacing it with a substitute.

In July 2019, 12-years after the attack, she had further surgery to cauterize the blood vessels in her left eye.  

The acid, some of which Piper had swallowed, blinded her in her left eye, and caused partial thickness and full thickness burns. 

Even though it has now been over 12 years since the attack, Katie has previously said that her ‘heart never sinks’ when she was told that she would need even more operations. 

Speaking to The Mirror in November, Katie explained: ‘You can look at it that way, or you can say, it’s extraordinary to be alive, because women who are acid attacked in other countries actually die.’

‘They don’t have the NHS, and they don’t have the sophisticated medicine we have here. So I think, my heart would never sink, life is a gift that I’m still here.’ 

In November, Katie received a Honorary Doctorate Award of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland to mark her achievements as a healthcare leader.

Activist Katie was honoured for her groundbreaking work setting up the Katie Piper Foundation – which supports burns survivors, along with their families and carers.

The Foundation has also opened a rehabilitation centre in the UK – and reaches out to survivors to provide remote individually tailored programmes of rehabilitation.

Katie shares her daughters belle, six, and Penelope, three, with husband Richard Sutton.

In February 2019 the presenter flew out to Pakistan for a major operation with her long-term plastic surgeon, Dr Muhammad Ali Jawad.  

Dr. Jawad was in charge of the star’s reconstruction surgery after she was attacked with sulphuric acid in 2008. 

Dr. Jawad and his team of surgeons completely removed the skin of Katie’s face, and replaced it with a skin substitute, Matriderm, to build the foundations for a skin graft. This pioneering procedure was the first of its kind to be done in a single operation.

After the operation, Katie was put into an induced coma for 12 days. She has since been through more than 200 surgical operations to treat her injuries.

Writing in the National Geographic in 2018, she said: ‘It’s been a decade since I survived a sulfuric acid attack that left me with severe burns across my face, in the following years, I’ve worked to redefine my sense of identity.

‘With injuries such as mine, your face can be so damaged that your expressions may not convey how you feel, and you may even lose your ability to smile.

‘It can be an isolating experience, you feel one way on the inside but look completely different on the outside, after more than 200 surgeries since my attack, I’ve accepted that my old face is gone.’