This image provided by the Legacy Emanuel Medical Center shows Bethany Storro prior to surgery. Storro has undergone surgery at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center according to hospital spokeswoman Amber Shoebridge Wednesday night Sept. 1, 2010. An unidentified woman threw acid in her face in downtown Vancouver Monday evening. (AP Photo/Legacy Emanuel Medical Center)
On a peaceful Monday afternoon Bethany Storro was celebrating her new job when a strange woman walked up to her and threw a cup of acid at her face.
The woman approached Storro with a cup asking her if she wanted to drink what was in the cup. The woman proceeded to throw the cup at Storro’s face and ran away from the crime scene.
Storro stumbled in pain as her face began to bubble and sizzle as portions of the shirt that had caught some of the acid began to disintegrate.
“It was the most painful thing ever,” said Storro on Thursday. ” My heart stopped. It ripped through my clothing the instant it touched my shirt; I could feel it burning through the second layer of skin.”
Storro was left with major damage to her face but was lucky enough she had been wearing a pair of sun glasses she had just purchased that day.
Parents Joe and Nancy Neuwelt were thankful that their daughter’s eye sight had not been damaged.
Storro has been dealing with spinal meningitis twice in her childhood which robbed her most of her hearing.
“Oh my gosh, to be hard of hearing and blind? That would drive them nuts,” said Storro trying to find the humor in her situation. “They have to be in the same room for me to hear them. I’m just so glad it’s a miracle.”
Police are now looking for the woman who attacked Storro. She was described as a black woman with slicked-back hair in a pony tail wearing a green top and khaki pants.
“I have never, ever seen this girl in my entire life,” said Storro. “When I first saw her she had this weirdness about her — like jealousy, rage.”
Dr. Nick Eshraghi, the surgeon who operated on Storro, said it was an acid as strong as hydrochloric or sulfuric acid.
Storro told reporters she wanted to meet her attacker and ask “Why.” Was it all just because she thought it’d be a funny prank or did she suddenly wake up one morning saying she was going to “carry some acid in a cup and throw it on the first person I see.”
Storro and her family have not let the incident take over their lives. Family members and friends have helped Storro recover since the accident and have been witness to all the support people have given her all over the country.
