Yunstince spent three years living without a nose An Indonesian woman who spent three years living without a nose after her husband sliced it off with a machete has been fitted with a prosthetic by an Oscar-winning special effects artist. Thirty year old Yustince was brutally attacked by her abusive partner and spent years hiding the gaping wounds on her face with a piece of gauze.
She has now finally been able to remove the bandages after the Grossman Burn Foundation - a non-profit dedicated to healthcare - asked Oscar-winning special effects artist Alec Gillis to make her a custom-made prosthesis.
“We\'re normally the ones scarring people with our scary monsters, so it\'s nice to be able to heal a scar,” said Gillis, who has created makeup effects for Hollywood films including Jumanji and Alien vs Predator.
Gills created a number of prototypes using photographs and measurements of Yustince’s face. Some of the noses can be glued directly to the face, while others can be attached using magnets and clipped on to eyeglasses.
Dr Rebecca Grossman, chair of the California-based Grossman Burn Foundation, said she approached Gillis after hearing about Yustince\'s story.
“I went to him and asked, \'\'Do you think you could do this?\'\' He said, \'\'No problem”. We\'re so grateful that he jumped right in there and what he\'s provided us with, it\'s going to change her life,” said Grossman.
Grossman travelled to Indonesia to fit Yustince with the prosthetic nose.
“I watched her face closely when the hand mirror was first given to her so she could see how it looked. She was silent and moved the mirror from side to side to look at her face from all angles.  Then, ever so slightly, you could see the corners of her mouth turn into a smile that I liken only to that of the Mona Lisa,” Randy Roberson, co-founder of Disaster Logistics Relief, who was present at the fitting told the Daily Mail.
Grossman is now hoping that Yustince will be able to undergo nasal reconstruction in the future.
Grossman has become well known for her charity projects around the world. Her most note-worthy cause included an 18-year-old Afghan woman who was sentenced by a Taliban commander to have her nose and ears cut off for fleeing her abusive in-laws – the project was later pictured on the cover of Time Magazine.