I was doused in acid in a random attack in Zanzibar - tourists took pictures of me while I was screaming for help Katie Gee, from London, was volunteering at a school in Zanzibar when attacked READ MORE: Now Gen Z ushers in 'organic living' By Alanah Khosla For Mailonline Published: 08:11 BST, 20 September 2024 | Updated: 08:15 BST, 20 September 2024 e-mail View comments An acid attack survivor has revealed how tourists took photographs of her as she attempted to wash acid off her face and screamed for help. Katie Gee, from London , was just 18-years-old and volunteering at a school in Zanzibar in 2013, when she and her friend Kirstie Trup were doused in acid in a random, unprovoked attack carried out by two men on a moped. The right side of Katie's face and body was burnt while her right ear was left shrivelled.
In the first five years after the attack, Katie underwent 70 operations – many of them gruelling 12-hour skin grafts – and in 2018 she was given a new right ear. Katie, now 29, took to TikTok to discuss the attack, and the ordeal that ensued to bring her back to the UK. In a video shared on the platform, Katie said: 'I was on my way out for dinner [when] two men drove past and threw acid on my right-hand side and drove off straight away .
' Katie Gee (pictured) from London has opened up about her harrowing acid attack story on TikTok 'This left me with 35 per cent burns and being in and out of hospital for years and years after. ' Recalling the moments after the attack, Katie said: 'So, I run straightaway to a bathroom, I'm screaming my head off asking for help, and then a couple, Nadine and Sam, came to help me and brought a bunch of bottled water. 'Loads of locals and tourists [were] watching me outside the bathroom and some of them were taking photos and things, so Nadine was shielding me.
'After[...
]washing myself [for a while] in the shower, we go to the first hospital. 'This hospital in Stone Town was honestly a complete s*** show, [with] hardly any staff working there. 'There, I'm dowsing myself with saline, which is disinfectant salty water, [we] then run out of saline and there's no running water.
'The next port of call is to get running water straight away and the next best hospital is in Dara Salam, which is in mainland Tanzania, and the only way to get there is to fly. 'We head straight to a hotel which is nearby, and I ended up using their poolside shower. For a good few hours, I was standing under these freezing cold showers.
' Katie, who was subject to a random acid attack while working in Zanzibar in 2013, is pictured five years after the attack in 2018, after undergoing 70 operations Katie (pictured before the attack) was on a way to eat dinner at a restaurant with her friend Kirstie Trup when the attack occurred She continued: 'I obviously was not wearing any clothes because they had all been burned off, I'm shaking uncontrollably and everyone's like, "she needs to go inside", and with a lot of coordination later, we are on our way to the main hospital in Dara Salam. 'We get an ambulance, we go straight to the runway, and we get on the airplane. As we land in Dara Salam, I am projectile vomiting on the runway.
'I'll spare you the rest of the details, but it was honestly just a s*** show.' Discussing her experience in the second hospital, Katie said: 'It was a lot calmer, [and] I had a lot of painkillers, and then through insurance, we are then told we could get on a medical airplane back to the UK. 'I [get] straight in an ambulance.
On the medical airplane there are two doctors with me, and as soon as we get on, I say to them, "please give me drugs and knock me out, I don't want to be awake for any of this journey". 'With an ambulance and my mother and whoever on the runway, we went straight to Chelsea and Westminster hospital where I was an inpatient.' In the first three years after the attack, Katie had to wear a plastic face mask and full body compression suit for 23 hours a day.
In 2018, she received a new right ear, sculpted from tissue from one of her ribs. Her assailants, who used acid from a car battery, have never been identified. 'In the first few years I barely went out,' Katie previously told Mail on Sunday.
'I had no confidence. People would stare and it makes you feel ugly and different, like a spectacle. I've come such a long way.
' Viewers took to the comment section of Katie's video to offer following her traumatic experience Katie, who describes herself as a 'survivor and thriver', graduated from Nottingham University in 2017. Viewers took to the comment section on Katie's video. One said: 'God bless Nadine and Sam.
I'm so sorry this was something you experienced. The world can be so cruel.' 'God bless Nadine and Sam.
Truly. I'm so sorry this happened to you. Unimaginable,' a second wrote.
Another added: 'Poor darling. What vile creatures this world holds. You are beautiful before and now.
' A fourth said: 'I am so sorry this happened to you. What an evil thing. You are so beautiful and so strong.
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