FACE MELT HORROR
Woman who was ‘burnt alive’ by a jealous wife claims recovering from horror injuries was more painful than the attack
AN Australian burns survivor has revealed the horror she spent in recovery after being doused in spirits and set on fire by a jealous woman.
Dana Vulin was attacked in February 2012 by Natalie Dimitrovska - who wrongly accused her of sleeping with her estranged husband Edin after she spoke to him at a party.
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The then 25-year-old was asleep on the sofa in her Perth apartment when Dimitrovska - high on crystal meth - broke into her home and set her alight, turning her into a fireball.
She sustained third degree burns on 60 per cent of her body after the horrific attack.
Now 30, Dana has bravely told how she battled back to health, undergoing around 200 procedures over more than 30 months of surgery.
Speaking to she revealed how her recovery was more painful than the attack.
She said: "There is no amount of anything that you know that can prepare you for this.
"I slept sitting on a crucifix for two -and-a-half years, with wrist splints, arm splints, elbow splints, palm splints, a mouth brace, a neck brace."
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For two-and-a-half years, she had to wear a compression mask on her face – to help the skin heal and had to have multiple skin grafts.
Dana, who previously described herself as a "modern day Frankenstein" said: "They’ve taken my right leg for skin four and a half full times, my left leg four times.
"My groin is my neck, my hips, and armpit and they shaved my entire skull to graft my entire face."
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Writing in her newly released book titled "Worth Fighting For", Dana explained how Dimitrovska grabbed a bottle of cleaning product, removed the lid and threw it over her face, arms and chest.
She added: “Suddenly the whole world was on fire. The flames were everywhere: my shoulders, my naked stomach — only my boobs were protected by my tiny boob tube.”
Dana said her hair went up in flames in seconds, while her attempts to extinguish the fire by dropping and rolling on the floor only spread it further.
“The pain was excruciating, but through my screaming I could hear Natalie and Daniel making their escape through the sliding door,” she added.
“They were laughing at me while I burnt alive. When I stood up the flames were getting worse, and I could barely think through the pain. ”
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Dana recalled how she went to the sink and desperately tried to extinguish the flames by throwing water on herself.
She wrote: “I knew that I needed to get help. I was as good as dead without it. As I fumbled with the front door I could feel the skin falling from my fingers.”
Dana screamed as loudly as she could and eventually a man, called Denis Ericson, who had been working out in a nearby gym came to her rescue.
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She credits Denis with saving her life. He called an ambulance, and she fell into a two-day coma in hospital.
Dana added: “The pain before I finally passed out in the ambulance was worse than anything I could ever have imagined — but that would turn out to be a tickle compared to what lay ahead of me.”
She is now a motivational speaker, like inspirational British acid attack victim Katie Piper – who is recently had her second child.
Dimitrovska was jailed for 17 years in 2015 for the horrific attack.
