Injury doesn't damage beauty queen's outlook

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After suffering a massive dog bite in May, Taylor Hubbard, a former Miss Kentucky Teen USA, will have laser surgery on her skin to help remove the scars. courtesy photo

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October 25, 2012

Injury doesn't damage beauty queen's outlook

Anonymous CNHI News Service The Union-Recorder Thu Oct 25, 2012, 01:23 PM EDT

LAUREL COUNTY, Ky. — Taylor Hubbard, the 2010 Miss Kentucky Teen USA, knows the thrill of winning a beauty pageant. Sadly, she also knows what it’s like to have her All-American looks scarred.

The high school senior, only minutes after switching from her prom gown into a leisure outfit last May, was attacked by a 5-year-old Siberian husky. Rushed to the hospital, Hubbard endured five-and-a-half hours of surgery and ended up with 200 stitches on her face.

She knew it was bad. “They wouldn’t let me see my face,” she said, “but I could feel out the bottom of my chin with my tongue. I knew how bad it was.”

The healing process has continued over the summer months and additional surgeries will be required.

Hubbard recently received some good news. Others have stepped forward to help out with her specialized medical care needs.

The Miss Universe Organization, owned by Donald Trump, will be paying for all travel expenses, including hotel stays and flight costs to New York, and Dr. Paul Nassif, the doctor from Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, will be performing her surgeries pro-bono.

“I’m so excited. Words cannot even describe that they would care so much about a girl from southeastern Kentucky, go out of their way for me,” she said.

Hubbard’s life has been one dominated by emotional highs and lows.

She lost her mother, Denna, to cancer just two weeks after she returned home as the winner of the Teen USA competition at age 14.

“For every negative thing in my life, I’ve grown from it,” Hubbard said. “I had a lot of inspiration and guidance. I could never have done anything I’ve done on my own and not any of it at all without my faith.”

A short time after being attacked by a friend’s dog, she was off on a mission trip to Puerto Rico. On the trip, Hubbard met an Alabama girl who had previously been in a car accident. She went through the windshield.

“She had had the same surgeries I was going to have,” Hubbard said. “She talked to me about the procedures.”

This did much to calm her fears.

Her next surgery will take place in Lexington, Ky., in about two months. Its primary goal will be to smooth the scars and advance the healing, Hubbard said.

From there, she will travel to New York for revision and removal with Dr. Nassif, who will follow up with a microdermabrasion surgery, also there. Hubbard then will be sent back to Lexington for a second laser surgery.

Surprisingly, Hubbard said her life is no different today than it was before she was bitten.

“They (scars) don’t bother me. I could go through my life with them,” she said. “I never placed an emphasis on outward appearances.

“I hope people don’t first notice what’s on the outside. I want to be noticed by my actions.”

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Details for this story were provided by Carrie Dillard, a reporter for the Sentinel-Echo in London, Ky.