By Nicole Conner For Mailonline

Published: 05:13 EST, 11 June 2021 | Updated: 13:14 EST, 11 June 2021

A birthday girl went to get her eyelashes done for her party - only for her entire eyelid to be torn off by the lash technician's chihuahua.

Kelsey Salmon, 23, from Atlanta, Georgia, had been stroking the dog while getting the beauty treatment done before it lunged at her in an unprovoked attack.   

Horrifying photos show Kelsey's entire eyelid torn off, still with her brand new extensions still attached. 

She ended up spending her birthday waiting hours in the hospital before she underwent emergency surgery to reattach the flesh.

A woman who went to get her eyelashes done for her birthday had entire eyelid torn off by the lash technician's chihuahua (pictured with her pet Scooby before the incident) 

Her eye was sewn shut for 10 days and will take up to a year to fully heal.    

Kelsey said: 'It took place at the girl's apartment, and this was the first time I'd ever met her. The living room was empty, aside from a lash bed in the middle of the room.

'I lay down to get started, and I could hear the dog barking in her room. This chihuahua runs in and jumps up on the bed. I start petting him, everything's fine.

'Eventually, she's finished with the lashes and I sit up. The dog's sitting on the floor, I look down at him and he's just staring at me.

'Then, out of nowhere - it happened so fast that I didn't have time to pull back - he jumped up, bit me in the face and broke my eyelid off.'

Kelsey Salmon, 23, from Georgia, was stroking the dog during her beauty treatment when it lunged at her in an unprovoked attack. She needed two hours of surgery to reattach her eyelid

Kelsey's eyelid was reattached but has been left bruised and dark while she's healing from the procedure  

The sales development representative said there was blood 'everywhere' and her 'eyelid was on the floor'.  

She added: 'I'm so lucky he didn't grab onto my actual eye because that could have been a thousand times worse.

'I was bawling my eyes out, she gave me a dirty blanket off the floor to stop my bleeding. She's calling the ambulance; I'm calling my mother to meet me at the hospital.

'When I got to the hospital, I ended up waiting for like seven hours. They didn't have any ocular plastic surgeons at this hospital.

Kelsey said doctors were 'unchartered territory' when trying to reattach her eyelid because none of them had ever seen a full one come off before 

She was eventually taken to another hospital before going into surgery on May 29, a process which took two hours

'My paramedics had wrapped up my eyelid in gauze and put it on ice. The nurse felt adamant that nothing could be done.'

She was eventually taken to another hospital before going into surgery on May 29, a process which took two hours. 

Kelsey's eyelid is recovering well but could take up to a year to fully heal.

Kelsey said: 'They honestly didn't think the eyelid was going to take, because none of the doctors or nurses I spoke to had seen a full eyelid come off.

'They were in uncharted territory. They were hopeful but the odds were against me.

Her eyelid will take up to a year to fully heal, and is currently stitched up with dissolvable stitches meaning that it should open eventually

Kelsey had been hoping to head on a trip to Hawaii to celebrate her birthday, which was given the go-ahead, as her surgery went better than expected 

'I now take antibiotic drops four times a day, and I also put on a prescription gel four times a day - just to keep it moist.

'They wanted my eye to be able to breathe during the day, but at night I'm wearing a metal eyepatch with holes.

'At the moment, my eye is all stitched up with dissolvable stitches. It should open eventually.'

She said that doctors were 'shocked' her eye had healed because the procedure 'shouldn't have worked'.  

Kelsey had been hoping to head on a trip to Hawaii to celebrate her birthday, which was given the go-ahead.  

She added: 'But even whilst I was on holiday, I was advised to go see a doctor by my surgeon back home. She thought the eyelid looked super dark.

While on holiday in Hawaii, Kelsey's doctors told her to go visit a surgeon when she got home as they believed her eye was very dark. They thought she may have flesh-eating bacteria

The sales development representative said there was blood 'everywhere' and her 'eyelid was on the floor' after she was attacked 

'This doctor thought I had flesh-eating bacteria which would be super detrimental. When he saw me, he told me I was fine, but put me on an oral antibiotic for seven days just in case.'

In addition to the physical discomfort, Kelsey has to deal with the judgement of others - both online and in real life.

Kelsey said: 'I didn't have any trouble flying to Hawaii, other than the fact that everybody was staring at me.

'I felt like a freak. Whilst I was travelling, it happened so much that I got to my wit's end with it.'  

Kelsey has since documented her recovery on TikTok after the first video went viral and wants people to learn lessons from her experiences.

She added: 'On TikTok, I mainly get positive comments but there are still a lot of negative people. There are different types of negative people. 

Kelsey has since documented her recovery on TikTok after the first video went viral and wants people to learn lessons from her experiences (pictured left with her sister Lauren) 

She has taken to TikTok to show pictures of her injury and said she couldn't close her eye. She now gets migraines and eye ache from only being able to look out one eye 

'There's some people who will say 'I don't want to see this, don't film this', whereas other people just make fun of my appearance and crack jokes.

'A lot of people have made assumptions that I provoked the dog by getting in its face. A lot of people were asking about the dog. How about me? Why not ask how I'm doing?'   

In the video, Kelsey showed pictures of her injury and said: 'I can't even close my eye. Now it's sewn shut for ten days.'

Kelsey said: 'It's hard to see this happen to someone else, and I don't want it to happen to anybody.

'Because I'm looking out of one eye, I get an eye ache. I get migraines, I don't trust myself to drive yet. There's a lot of little things - your eye affects a lot.

'I just want people to not take their eyelids for granted. It really sucks not having one. I would also advise people not to go to anybody's house for lashes or nails. Always go to a reputable salon.

'This experience has made me look at dogs differently. I have dogs myself, and I don't think of them differently because I know they wouldn't randomly attack me.

'But everyone else's dogs, I'm hesitant around. Dogs are very unpredictable, I can see that now and I'm very careful as a result.' 

The comments below have not been moderated.

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

We are no longer accepting comments on this article.

Published by Associated Newspapers Ltd

Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group