Woman Set On Fire By Jealous Wife Recounts Ordeal & Removes Her Mask

She was doused with methylated spirits and set on fire by a woman jealous of her beauty two and a half years ago in a horrific premeditated attack to 'ruin her pretty face'. On Sunday, after 30 months of agonising reconstructive surgery and more than 30 procedures, Dana Vulin will take off the mask that she's been forced to wear to cover her burnt face. The 28-year-old suffered third-degree burns to two thirds of her body, including her face, and has endured constant pain since the horrific attack.

'In my wildest dreams in the beginning I didn't for one second think I could look in the mirror and see the old Dana again,' Ms Vulin told Channel Seven's Sunday Night show. Ms Vulin was on her sofa at home in Perth, Western Australia on February 16, 201, when a woman's voice said: 'Hello, Dana.'

Natalie Dimitrovska, the jealous estranged wife of a man named Edin who Ms Vulin had met at a New Year’s Eve party, stood before her. Dimitrovska hurled a bottle of methylated spirits over Ms Vulin, a convicted drug user, while she was reportedly holding a lamp used for smoking crystal meth.

'I was pretty much instantly on fire,' a weeping Ms Vulin told Western Australia's District Court. 'I was a human fireball. 'The moment I was on fire, [Dimitrovska and a male accomplice] just laughed and ran out of my apartment,' she added.
Since coming out of a coma, Dana has suffered agonising pain from her burns and has been forced to wear the pressure suit and mask between countless operations. Appearing on Channel Seven’s Sunday Night this weekend Ms Vulin explained how her life has changed since the attack.

'I've been faceless and it makes you feel like a nothing and a no one, 'I know who I am, but I'm beige. I don't have any expressions on my face, you can’t see my mouth, you can’t see my nose, you can literally only see my eyeballs, not my eyebrows. It makes me feel like a faceless nothing, that’s the best way to describe it.'
Of the mask that has covered her face for so long, she added: 'I respect the s**t out of this mask, and I appreciate it, but I also hate its guts. Without it I couldn't be where I am right now, but if I had a choice I'd rather endure physical pain than wear this mask.' 

On October 11 2013, Dimitrovska wept as she was jailed for 17 years for grievous bodily harm with intent.  In sentencing, Judge Bruce Goetze described the attack as being in the worst category of grievous bodily harm with intent. He said the attack was also premeditated as in the weeks leading up to the incident Dimitrovska had threatened to 'ruin (Ms Vulin’s) pretty face'. Dimitrovska ran away after setting Ms Vulin on fire.

'It is really difficult to imagine how one human being could leave while another human being is on fire,’ Judge Goetze said. ‘It is totally unimaginable how you could not put out the flames, or try to do so, or at least call for help. Instead, you laughed and ran away.’

Speaking on Sunday Night, Ms Vulin said: 'I am a strong person, and more than anything that I've learnt in my burn is that I will never change and I know the person I am, and '’m confident in the woman that I am.'

Source: AP / Mailonline