Story By: Feza Uzay, Sub-Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency:  Newsflash

A man whose face was mutilated when an angle grinder exploded at work has said he still gets chills thinking about his bloody face before the surgery that saved his life.

Ahmet Bolat, 65, went to work in a house in the district of Turkoglu in the south-eastern Turkish city of Kahramanmaras on 21st January.

At one point while working, the angle grinder he was using to cut iron exploded in his face, leaving him severely cut and covered in blood.

Bolat was immediately sent to the Kahramanmaras Sutcu Imam University Health Practice and Research Hospital where scans showed he suffered serious cuts to his facial muscles and nerves, and multiple fractures of the lower jaw, upper jaw, nose, cheekbones and cervical bone.

Bolat was operated on by a medical team led by Dr Alper Ural.

In the five-hour surgery, the foreign fragments from the cutting tool were first removed from Bolat’s face followed by the reconstructive surgery of his fractured bones using titanium screws and plates.

The badly damaged bone around one of Bolat’s eyes was reconstructed with titanium in a reticulate structure that closely imitated the broken bone, and his facial nerves were repaired during a microsurgical procedure.

Stating that Ahmet Bolat’s condition was very bad when he came to the hospital, Dr. Ural said: “In the end, the complicated operation that lasted about five hours was a success. Our patient is getting better, and we hope that he will continue to get even better in the future.”

After the surgery, Bolat said that he felt as if he had returned from death.

He said: “I have nightmares when I remember the initial state of my face, but thank God I’m better now.”

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