Woman pops pimple in 'triangle of death', ends up with brain infection

A woman had to be rushed to the emergency room after her husband popped a pimple in the ‘Triangle of Death’ region on her face. Popping pimples is something we all do, but for Alisha Monaco, it caused a huge scare. While we are often advised to avoid googling anything related to health, in Alisha's case, it sent a warning signal that turned out to be true. She warned people about her experience in a social media post. The 32-year-old used to get cystic acne, and one day noticed a nasty one at the corner of her nostril, which was hurting badly. Her husband told her he could pop it, but she wasn't keen on doing it. Ideally, she said, she often did it, and her husband would tell him not to. But this time he volunteered. "I said, 'I don't think we should. I'm gonna let this one go for the first time, I'm not gonna touch it'," Alisha told People magazine. She sterilised the tools and got on with it. Also Read: Argentine man awarded $12,500 after Google Street View car snaps him naked, posts it on social media

Googling her symptoms revealed exactly what had happened

Alarm bells rang when she pushed on it too hard, and she heard a pop in her ear. "I was pushing on it, and this is where I knew I messed up because I pushed on it and tried to pop it, and my right ear popped," she said. She knew something was wrong since this had never happened. She stopped it and cleaned her face, and put a pimple patch over it. Curious what could have happened, Alisha went on Google and learnt about the "triangle of death," the area in the middle of your face from the bridge of your nose to the corners of your mouth. Also Read: Six nurses of one hospital working on same floor develop brain tumours one after the other

Alisha went to sleep but woke up with severe pain after only four hours. Her face was swollen and her smile was haywire. She couldn't lift one side of her face, the ear that popped felt full of fluid, and her vision was blurry. She tried going back to sleep, but hours later, the face had swollen even more. So she ran to the hospital, where the doctors said her symptoms were expected. She was prescribed antibiotics, which reduced her swelling within 12 hours. She is not warning people not to pop a pimple in the "triangle of death", and her video has gathered over 8.1 million views.

Problems with popping a pimple

According to the Cleveland Clinic, the "triangle of death" on the face has "a direct line to the brain," and popping a pimple located in the region can "lead to an infection in your brain." There is a network of large veins located behind the eye sockets, called the cavernous sinus, through which the blood drains from the brain. There is a teensy chance that any infection in the "triangle of death" can travel to the brain.