What happened to Padma Lakshmi’s arm?
AUTHOR and TV host Padma Lakshmi proudly displays the seven-inch scar on her arm.
Whether she's walking the red carpet, hosting Bravo's Top Chef or hulu's Taste the Nation, Padma Lakshmi makes no attempt to conceal her visible scar, but where did it come from?
What happened to Padma Lakshmi's arm?
The Top Chef host has been open about the story behind her scar which she has had since she was a teenager.
At the age of 14, Lakshmi was in the car with her parents when it tumbled off the freeway and dropped 40 feet before crashing into a tree on an embankment.
The family had to wait 40 minutes before being rescued by emergency services, and they were eventually airlifted to hospital by helicopter.
The collision resulted in serious injuries for the TV host.
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Lakshmi suffered extensive injuries including a fractured hip and shattered arm. She had to undergo various surgical procedures in order to regain use of both her arm and hip, and was left with a seven-inch long scar on her arm as a result of the surgery.
What has Padma Lakshmi said about her scar?
Despite initially being self-conscious and attempting to hide it using makeup or by posing differently in pictures, Padma Lakshmi has now embraced her scar.
In an interview with she admitted that the way she feels about her scars has changed immensely.
“My attitude about my body has grown and changed and morphed and evolved, as has my body,” she said.
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“When I was young, I tended to be more self-conscious about my stretch marks from growing, or the scar on my arm from my car accident," the Top Chef host admitted.
Now even if she could wave a magic wand to remove the scar, she wouldn't, “It’s what sets me apart and makes me me," she said.
Lakshmi has also been open about her struggle with endometriosis, a painful condition where uterus lining grows outside of the uterus.
Endometriosis is notoriously difficult to diagnose, Lakshmi herself was not diagnosed with the condition until her mid thirties and it's estimated that around 10 percent of women suffer with the condition.