A woman was left needing plastic surgery after being trampled and booted in the face by a raging cow.
Darcie Rowlandson, who was working as a farming assistant, was bringing a couple of dairy cows in from the fields ahead of a storm when one of the animals started resisting. Instead of obediently walking into the shed, the 62st cow instead turned in the opposite direction – and accidentally knocked Darcie to the ground. Grisly footage shows the huge cow trying to make a hasty retreat by jumping over the 20-year-old, only to kick her directly in the face as she sits up.
Photos taken moments before she was rushed to hospital then show Darcie’s bloodied face, split lip and closed right eye.
She was given emergency treatment, and needed plastic surgery to stitch the wounds shut.
It was a gruesome experience – but, perhaps surprisingly, Darcie believes that the accident in September 2023 was “meant to be”, as it introduced her to the practice of medical tattooing.
This is often used on patients who have had breast reconstruction, or to camouflage scars.
Darcie decided to qualify in it herself, and has since gone on to launch her own business, As Before, which offers free medical tattoos to burns victims and breast cancer patients
Darcie, from Preston, Lancashire, said: “I think everything happens for a reason. I’m very optimistic.
“It was probably meant to be that it did happen – I would never have known about medical tattooing if it hadn’t.
“When the accident happened, I wanted to bring two cows in from the field because there was supposed to be the first big storm of the year.
“They’d been out for summer and I didn’t want them outside getting stressed in the thunder and lightning.
“I tried to entice them with food, but that wasn’t working. Then I tried bringing them in on a halter.
“As I was trying to bring her in, her head went one way and I lost my balance and fell the other way.
“She wasn’t being nasty, it was just an accident. I held onto the rope, because you do naturally, and as I ended up on the floor she got spooked and jumped over my face.
“As she did that and I sat up, that’s where she just caught my face with a hoof.
“It cut my lip and made it wider and also caught my eyes. I looked like a Halloween mask with all those stitches in.”
Darcie was rushed to Royal Preston Hospital by concerned dad Denis Rowlandson.
Doctors gave her antibiotics and fluids before she underwent plastic surgery to stitch up her wounds.
Animal lover Darcie said she was inspired to switch careers after her accident.
She explained: “I asked a semi-permanent make-up artist about it and she told me to follow someone on Instagram.
“I decided if it didn’t fade I’d get it done. Even though my scarring is quite minimal now I kept following her and then realised she did training courses too.
“I remember thinking ‘this is amazing, I need to do this’.
“I completed my training in June 2024 and set up a business called As Before, and work in Wilmslow and Blackpool.
“I work with all kinds of people including women and men who’ve gone through breast cancer, women who’ve had a breast reduction and given them brand new colour-matched nipples.
“It’s really rewarding doing the work I do.”
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