Katie Piper returns to Loose Women with health update after six-week absence
She had pioneering surgery to ‘avoid losing her left eye’ 15 years after she was attacked
Katie Piper has made her long-awaited return to Loose Women after being absent from the show for health reasons. The star was back on the panel on Wednesday (December 13) after undergoing surgery to “avoid losing” her left eye.
The 40-year-old presenter has faced multiple operations and complications since she was attacked with acid in 2008 at the age of 24. Katie suffered life-changing burns, injuries and blindness in one eye and had to have pioneering surgery to restore her vision.
She recently explained that her latest operation was a tarsorrhaphy procedure, which joins parts or all of the upper and lower eyelids to completely close the eye. She said it was an attempt to “preserve the eye, avoid perforation and losing my eye completely”, the Mirror reports.
Loose Women host Kaye Adams welcomed Katie back to the show, saying: “Hello stranger! First of all, Katie, we haven’t seen you for what, five or six weeks?”
Katie then explained her six-week absence and gave Kaye and viewers more details on the “planned procedure”, saying it involved a “semi-permanent closure of the eye”. She said it was normally for patients with disease of the cornea.
She added: “Closing the eye gives it the optimum environment to heal so I’ve had quite a lot of problems with my eye over the last year and a half. I don’t like to go on about it because there’s always somebody worse off!”
Kaye said “incredible” Katie was “so stoic”. And her co-star admitted: “It’s been quite painful so it’s quite a relief for me to finally have it stitched up because it’s a lot more comfortable! It’s not permanent, it’s going to be for just about a year like this then hopefully I can have it opened!”
Talking about how she first coped after the surgery, Katie said: “It was a bit like being pregnant because you feel a bit dizzy and nauseous. It’s difficult when the other eye is trying to operate. It does take a bit of taking used to but that does subside and then you get used to it. I had the operation a month ago now, so I’m actually okay, I’m still wearing six-inch high heels!”
The star then spoke about how she has had to be conscious of her health and how she felt “grateful”. She said: “I suppose I did experience both of my eyes being damaged at quite a young age. So I always feel really grateful and happy that I’m here, seeing all these lovely people!”
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