Eric Schweiger, M.D.

Metamorphosis Monday: Gina’s Story

Once a month, Schweiger Dermatology highlights a unique story of a patient’s success with modern non-invasive cosmetic procedures.

In 2002, Gina was involved in a serious car accident as a passenger in a friend’s car. The automobile, a 1987 Volvo with no airbags, hit a reinforced steel telephone pole at 50 mph. Gina was happy to be alive, but was left with many physical injuries, including  a broken cheekbone, wrist, femur, patella and other small fractures. She also had several deep facial lacerations from jagged sharp glass that had not shattered out properly of the passenger side window. Gina had thousands of micro-stitches and spent the first 3 weeks in ICU before moving to a rehabilitation facility.

After eight months of extreme physical pain and many hours of physical therapy, Gina was able to walk again, but her face was nowhere near back to normal. “I was distracted by my serious physical injuries, and had not realized the toll that had been taken on my skin,” says Gina. “There were lots of deep cuts, lines, pigmentation problems and I was devastated.” After several attempts to remedy her skin issues with microdermabrasion, which did not do much besides irritate her newly healing skin, she gave up trying to fix the problem and instead became skilled at covering it up with makeup. “Inside it had always made me very sad and depressed that I had to wear so much makeup,” she explains. “It took a severe toll on my confidence and social life for many years.”

But Gina did not give up hope that her skin could somehow be returned back to its pre-accident state. Nine years later, after doing a year’s worth of research on the fractional CO2 laser, Gina found Dr. Schweiger. “Never would I have imagined the results I have gotten between the fractional CO2 laser and the less invasive Fraxel treatments. I was happy to be working with a doctor who would not settle for average results and who cared about my special situation. I’ve been much happier emotionally and mentally and look the best I have in 10 years,” says Gina.

Gina’s metamorphosis included one Fractional CO2 laser treatment and a series of Fraxel laser treatments.  Dr. Schweiger adds “Gina did exceptionally well with the laser treatments and we were committed to giving her the best treatments possible with the most state of the art lasers. I am so happy she has her confidence back. “