Four years after a dog attack ripped away much of her face, Jacqueline Durand is still rebuilding, but the story she is telling now is less about horror and more about how to live with what came after. Her latest update, shared around the anniversary of the mauling, is raw and specific, touching on surgeries, mental health, and the strange reality of growing into adulthood with a face that has been almost entirely remade. It is also part of a wider wave of survivors, from social media creators to medical case studies, who are choosing to show the process instead of hiding the scars.
Durand’s reflections land in a moment when other women who survived devastating dog attacks are also marking the four year mark and speaking publicly about what that distance from the trauma actually feels like. Together, their stories trace a line from the emergency room to long term recovery, from the first time they saw themselves in a mirror to the day they decided to post that image online.
The day everything changed
Jacqueline Durand was working as a dog sitter when her life split into a before and after. She had been hired to take care of a German Shepherd and a pit bull, dogs she already knew and believed were safe, when they suddenly turned on her inside the owners’ home. By the time first responders reached her, the damage was almost impossible to process: she lost her ears, nose and lips and suffered extreme jaw injuries that would require dozens of operations to even begin to repair, according to detailed accounts of the attack and its aftermath.
Surgeons later described the kind of facial destruction Durand endured in the same clinical language they use for other catastrophic bites, including what specialists call a Total nasal avulsion. In one widely discussed case, Jordan Wilson worked with UT Southwestern surgeons to rebuild her nose after a dog bite, illustrating the kind of intricate reconstruction that sits behind every before and after photo. Durand’s injuries were even more extensive, and her path would stretch into years of staged surgeries and daily rehab.
Four years on, a different kind of anniversary
When the attack date rolls around each year, Durand does not pretend it is just another day. In her latest update, shared in a YouTube video marking the four year milestone, she admits that the first few anniversaries were “really hard” because she dwelled on the violence and everything she had lost. According to According to Durand, that loop of replaying the attack in her head slowly eased as she built a new routine and began to see progress in the mirror.
This year, she describes the past twelve months as a period of “a lot of change,” some of it brutal, some of it quietly good. Durand says the overall feeling is that life has been “really beautiful,” even with the complications that come with constant medical appointments and a face that still draws stares, a perspective she shared while reflecting that Durand now tries to focus less on the exact date of the attack and more on how far she has come since then. In her words, the anniversary has shifted from a day of pure grief to a checkpoint in a longer survival story.
Living with a rebuilt face
Durand’s injuries were not just about appearance, they reshaped basic functions like eating, speaking and even how she hears the world. Reports on her case note that she lost her ears, nose and lips and suffered extreme jaw damage, with surgeons scheduling what was described as her 30th major procedure to continue refining the reconstruction. One detailed account of her medical journey explains that She has had to relearn everyday tasks with prosthetics and reconstructed tissue that do not always cooperate.
Her experience echoes other complex dog bite cases, including one where surgeons rebuilt the nose of Jordan Wilson after a Southwestern patient’s face was mauled. In that case, doctors described connecting cartilage to what remained inside the nasal cavity, a technique similar to the approach used on influencer Brooklinn Khoury when surgeons attached cartilage to what was left from the inside of her nose and nostrils, a detail she shared while explaining what happened After her own attack. For Durand, the technical details are different but the core reality is the same: her face is now a patchwork of surgical decisions, each one a compromise between function and aesthetics.
Finding community in other survivors
Durand is not navigating this alone. Her story has unfolded alongside that of skateboarder and content creator Brooklinn Khoury, who also survived a severe dog attack that tore away her upper lip and part of her nose. Khoury has spoken openly about how a dog attack changed her life and how she leaned on her own resilience when she felt like she was “losing hope,” a journey detailed in a profile that describes how Brooklinn Khoury slowly returned to skating and public life. Over time, she has become a kind of unofficial teammate for others like Durand who are figuring out how to exist in front of a camera again.
Khoury recently marked her own four year milestone, sharing that she is “Thankful For Everything It’s Taught Me” in a post that framed the attack as a brutal teacher rather than just a tragedy, a sentiment captured when Brooklinn Khoury Reflects on the “Years Since Life” altering dog attack. She has also talked about how, following her final reconstructive surgery, she set her sights on getting a lip tattoo to reclaim some control over how her mouth looks, a plan she described in detail when explaining how her surgeon finished the last stage and how she felt Following that final operation. In October 2023, Khoury even shared a video of the tattoo process, joking that it looked “crazy, but it’s beautiful,” a small but pointed reminder that survivors are allowed to chase aesthetics too, not just function.
Turning survival into support
Durand’s latest video is not just a diary entry, it is also a message to the people who have been watching her heal in real time. She makes a point of thanking those who have supported her over the years, from family and friends to strangers who found her through news coverage and social media. At one point she looks straight into the camera and tells viewers, “I want you to know that I’m here for you, no matter where you are in your journey,” a line highlighted in coverage that notes how She has shifted from being the one who needed constant reassurance to someone who can offer it.
Her willingness to speak so directly has turned her into a reference point for other survivors of violent trauma, not just dog attacks. One report on her anniversary video notes that Durand shared the update in part because she knows people search for stories like hers when they are newly injured and desperate for proof that life can still be lived. Another version of that coverage underscores that Durand shared the video to mark the four year anniversary, turning a date that once felt like a curse into a platform.
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