Woman has half her skull removed after deadly sinus infections

A series of sinus infections has left a woman from the US with half a skull, despite rounds of antibiotics.

Natasha Alyena Gunther explained in a recent TikTok video how half her skull had to be removed due to her constant sinus infections.

She explained all through 2021 she had five or six sinus infections, and she was taking antibiotics throughout but said they weren't helping.

"I was throwing up a lot and had horrible migraines, like horrible," she said.

On December 12, Ms Gunther's parents made her go and get a CT scan and that same night, she had her first brain surgery.

"I had a craniotomy. They removed my bone and saw that I had a massive amount of staph and sinus infection," she said.

"That mass moved my brain nine millimetres to the right."

During her first stay in the hospital, Ms Gunther had surgery to clear out her sinuses and she said she had to have the same surgery "not too long ago" because they "closed again".

On December 23, Ms Gunther had another surgery, where she had another craniotomy, a surgery where part of the skull is removed to expose the brain.

Unlike the first time, the skull was not put back in place.

"This time they removed 12 to 14 centimetres of my skull and put it in a little freezer," she said.

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Awaiting surgery to have skull put back

She was in the hospital for five weeks following the surgery and she was waiting for April and May to get her skull back.

Ms Gunther said following the surgery her speech was "non-existent", and she has speech therapy twice a week.

Her boyfriend is a personal trainer and she does physical therapy with him twice a week to help re-energise her body after being in hospital for so long.

She said while laying down in the hospital she lost a lot of movement in her legs, ankles and hands.

"So now I'm patiently waiting to get my skull back," she said.

"I'm either going to use my skull which is in a jar, or they're going to do it with a 3D print. So we'll see what I choose and I'm not that far yet, but we'll see."

Ms Gunther encouraged people to go see a specialist if they keep having sinus infections and get it checked out.

Ms Gunther is now using her platform on TikTok to bring awareness.

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