Man With Severe Deformity Gets A New Nose For Christmas

A man with a disfigured nose received a brand new one for Christmas after a chance meeting with a plastic surgeon, the New York Post reports.

Conrado Estrada, a 57-year-old painter and construction laborer from Portchester, New York, had become accustomed to wearing face coverings to conceal his nose. His nose had grown so large that he struggled with eating and breathing.

credit: Courtesy Dr. Thomas Romo

“They would stare at me,” he told The Post. “Children would ask their mothers what happened to me — and I would get around it by using a face mask all the time.”

It was far from just a cosmetic issue as it prohibited him from breathing and speaking normally and caused him to snore.

“It had reached my lips and whenever I took a bite when I ate that would touch the spoon,” he said.

But now that he no longer has to rely on his mask to cover up his nose, his loved ones can finally see Estrada beaming from ear to ear.

It was all due to a chance meeting with a plastic surgeon named Dr. Thomas Romo, who is the director of facial plastic reconstructive surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital.

The surgeon said Estrada’s “smoldering infection” made it appear as though he “had a penis on his nose.”

Romo told The Post he “was sort of excited” to meet Estrada when he turned up at his home in Bronxville to pain with a team of other co-workers around five months ago.

credit: Courtesy Dr. Thomas Romo

“This was a bad one,” he said of Estrada’s “proboscis,” which made it seem as if he had “a penis on his nose,” according to Romo. “It was a smoldering infection … and it would have just kept going.”

He decided to pull Estrada aside to discuss the deformity, telling The Post: “I don’t mind telling people what I think.”

Over the years, Estrada had grown a bulbous nose due to his rhinophyma. Symptoms of the condition include thickened, pimpled and pitted skin at the tip of the nose as a result of enlarged sebaceous (oil) glands.

“I had spent six years seeing doctors and skin specialists and nothing would get better,” said Estrada.

“He saw me, and he gave me a hug,” Estrada added. “He said, ‘I’m going to help you.’”

“I believe God sent an angel to take care of me — and that’s how I see Dr. Romo,” he said

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