- A Michigan woman was hospitalised after popping a pimple in the Triangle of Death area on her face
- The Triangle of Death extends from the nose bridge to mouth corners and links directly to the brain
- Skin specialist Alok Vij warned infections can travel quickly to the brain via the cavernous sinus
A woman, who reportedly lives in Michigan, landed in a hospital after she popped a pimple on her face, Birmingham Mail reported. The woman named Alisha Monaco squeezed a spot in the little-known 'Triangle of Death' area. Hours after that, she started feeling dizzy and experiencing "excruciating" pain.
The Triangle of Death area extends from the bridge of the nose to the corners of the mouth and contains blood vessels that lead directly to the brain, making it prone to serious infections.
According to the report, Monaco shared her trauma in a now-viral TikTok video.
She also spoke with CTVNews.ca, saying that she has been getting these cyst pimples "a couple of times a month", and that was one of them.
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In the first attempt, she failed to pop it. Then she planned to poke it with a sanitised pimple popper needle tool. The 32-year-old said, "I knew I'd messed up."
"The pain was all on the right bottom side of my nostril, down to my lip and even up the side of my face. I woke up four or five hours later in excruciating pain on the right side of my face.
"The whole right side of my face was swollen, my smile was crooked, and my ear felt clogged on the right side. It was brutal. I was in so much pain just trying to smile/talk."
She went to see a medical expert, as she "needed to get it treated immediately because the risk of infection in that location is dangerous".
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In case it gets infected, bacteria can enter the bloodstream and travel to the brain, causing conditions like meningitis, brain abscesses, or septic cavernous sinus thrombosis. Infections can spread to the eyes, leading to vision loss or blindness, and can also cause blood clots or strokes, leading to facial paralysis or other motor function impairments.
As quoted by Leeds Live, skin specialist Alok Vij warned: "Think of this small segment of your face as a direct line to your brain. That's thanks to your cavernous sinus, a network of large veins located behind your eye sockets. Through this sinus, blood drains from your brain.
"An infection in the danger triangle - like from a picked pimple, or a nose piercing gone wrong - has a small but not impossible chance of travelling from your face right to your brain, without much distance to cover between them."
Monaco said: "I had a feeling after I popped the pimple that I needed to look it back up on TikTok to double check and sure enough my pimple was right in the triangle of death area. I [then] just wanted to warn others to learn from my experience.
"I don't have a huge following on social media so I had no idea that it was going to go so viral, but from reading the comments of all the people who weren't aware that the triangle of death was a thing, I'm glad I did. Now everyone can see what happened to me, and hopefully they will just put a pimple patch on and leave that area alone."
In a similar incident, a woman in New York developed a severe infection after popping a pimple beneath her nostril.
A teenager in China once developed a blood clot in her cavernous sinuses after popping a pimple on her nose.
A woman in Louisiana developed a staph infection after popping a pimple above her lip.
