The ex-wife of former Arsenal star Andrey Arshavin has revealed the transformation of her nose after a flesh-eating disease from botched surgery left her deformed.
Former model Alisa Kazmina, 41, showed what her nose looked like after a series of nine operations to repair the hole left in the centre of her face by the disease.
Kazmina, who wed Russian winger Arshavin in 2016, watched in horror as her nose rotted away when her immune system turned on her own body and began to eat away at her face.
Shocking time lapse footage released by her medical team shows her miraculous recovery from a hole in the middle of her face surrounded by a flap of flesh back to normal over a period of months.
Kazmina’s ordeal began in 2020 when necrosis began to affect her nose after a series of cosmetic surgery procedures.
The ex-wife of former Arsenal star Andrey Arshavin has revealed the transformation of her nose after a flesh-eating disease from botched surgery left her deformed (pictured)
Former model Alisa Kazmina (pictured above before contracting the flesh-eating disease), 41, showed what her nose looked like after a series of nine operations to repair the hole left in the centre of her face by the disease
Kazmina, who wed Russian winger Arshavin in 2016 (wedding pictured), watched in horror as her nose rotted away when her immune system turned on her own body and began to eat away at her face
Within a year she had stopped posting on social media and began to hide away as her nose was eaten away by the flesh-eating bacteria and terrifyingly turned into a rapidly growing hole.
The mother-of-three, whose youngest daughter Yesenya was fathered by her footballer ex, said her ordeal started when she noticed her nose had begun sagging but was still so depressed after her 2019 divorce from Arshavin that she ignored it.
Rather than going to hospital, she called in cosmetic specialists who treated it as a simple infection. But instead of curing it, the hole just grew wider and deeper.
But by May 2020, she said that non-cosmetic medics had diagnosed her with ‘autoimmune necrosis’ that caused her body’s natural defences to turn on itself.
Some doctors speaking to Russian media at the time speculated that Kazmina’s disease could be granulomatosis with polyangiitis, which was previously known as Wegener granulomatosis, a rare multisystem autoimmune disease.
It damages the walls of blood vessels, leading to the destruction of surrounding tissues, and can be fatal.
Others said Kazmina could have also been suffering from a ‘rare fungus’.
In 2021, Kazmina, a journalist, said that her ‘beautiful face was mutilated by the disease’.
Shockingly the necrosis that had eaten away her nose was now just millimetres away from her brain.
Shockingly the necrosis that had eaten away her nose (hole pictured above) was now just millimetres away from her brain
Kazmina previously explained: ‘I had an operation to sanitise the necrosis. It was an emergency, the clock was ticking. The destruction was up to the sphenoid sinuses, almost to the brain.’ Although the surgery saved her life, it left her with little more than a flap for a nose and a single hole to breathe through (pictured)
Now, says the surgeon, Kazmina faces a new series of three further operations to re-sculpt her new nose (pictured above)
BEFORE: Kazmina is pictured above before a flesh-eating disease left her with a hole where her nose was
AFTER: Kazmina is pictured above after a series of nine surgeries to repair her nose
Kazmina previously explained: ‘I had an operation to sanitise the necrosis. It was an emergency, the clock was ticking. The destruction was up to the sphenoid sinuses, almost to the brain.’
Although the surgery saved her life, it left her with little more than a flap for a nose and a single hole to breathe through.
She told how after the five-hour operation, the nose was completely cleaned out, and there was no bone tissue, no cartilage and no mucous left.
Then reconstructive surgery expert Dr Denis Agapov led a series of operations to restore her nose.
Taking tissue from her forehead and cartilage from her ears and ribs his medical team painstakingly rebuild her face piece by piece.
Dr Agapov said in a Telegram post: ‘The most challenging part of my work was restoring the soft tissue covering, which was almost completely absent.
‘Skin flaps were taken from the nasolabial folds, along with ear cartilage, which was transplanted with the skin.
‘Several surgeries were performed: some successful and some not. In one stage, we lost almost everything due to the inflammatory process.’
Now, says the surgeon, Kazmina faces a new series of three further operations to re-sculpt her new nose.
Dr Agapov explained: ‘Currently, we are refining the “somewhat rough” structure into a delicate and beautiful feminine nose.’
In comments on the post, Kazmina thanked the medic saying he ‘gave her the opportunity to live again.’
Dr Agapov explained: ‘Currently, we are refining the “somewhat rough” structure into a delicate and beautiful feminine nose’ (pictured: Kazmina with her nose deformed after one of the surgeries)
Kazmina’s reconstructive plastic surgery on her nose resulted in an astonishing transformation
Kazmina (pictured now after the series of surgeries) was married to Arshavin from 2016 to 2019, after which the ex-Arsenal player was ordered to pay £3,350 in support each month for their daughter Yesenya
Arshavin scored 31 goals in 144 appearances for Arsenal between 2009-13 before returning to his boyhood club Zenit St Petersburg
Kazmina was married to Arshavin from 2016 to 2019, after which the ex-Arsenal player was ordered to pay £3,350 in support each month for their daughter Yesenya.
Arshavin scored 31 goals in 144 appearances for Arsenal between 2009-13 before returning to his boyhood club Zenit St Petersburg.
He has been an executive board member of Zenit since 2023 after being the club’s Deputy General Director for Sports Development following a stint in an administrative role at Zenit.
While Arshavin lived in London when he played for Arsenal, he was in a relationship with famous Russian TV presenter Yulia Baranovskaya, with whom he has three children.