Arthur Chi'en is back. Yesterday, the news reporter for New York's PIX11 returned to the air, eight months after suffering a serious head injury during a Halloween parade altercation with an unruly clown. Serious.
I know, it sounds crazy, but it's no laughing matter -- the fall literally broke his face. But you can't keep a good man down: Arthur Chi'en Returns To PIX11 8 Months After Halloween Parade Head Injury.
Chi'en's injuries included nerve, jaw and eye damage, brain injuries and crushing fractures to the left side of his face. It wasn't pretty:
"When I looked in the mirror, I figured my TV career was over," Chi'en said. As surgeons prepared to install seven metal plates in his face and over 20 screws. "It's really a miracle to be normal-looking today and to be able to get back to what I love doing."Damn, that sounds painful. But after doctors told him that his face would never be the same again, and Chi'en thought his TV career was over, he's made a full recovery. Face looking normal -- and he's looking good! Good enough to be back on the air. As for that rogue marauding parade clown, he's long gone.
The main surgery took almost twice the amount of time doctors anticipated. "There was one point of the cheek that kept crumbling, the bone kept shattering," said the facial reconstructive surgeon Chi'en turned to, Dr. Robert Schwarcz. "We had to find a stable part of his facial bone to anchor the screws, there were a lot of screws."