Woman Hospitalized After Popping a “Triangle of Death” Pimple Issues Urgent Warning: “Please Don’t”
A woman who ended up hospitalized after popping a pimple in the so-called “triangle of death” is now urging others not to make the same mistake.
Lindsay deOliveira woke up one morning to what looked like an ordinary blemish near her nose and did what many people would do—she popped it. The 32-year-old assumed it would fade as usual, but instead the spot and the surrounding area began to swell, quickly becoming far more severe.
DeOliveira’s pimple was in the part of the face often referred to as the “triangle of death,” an area that runs from the nose down to the corners of the mouth. Picking or popping pimples there can introduce bacteria and trigger a serious infection—something deOliveira experienced firsthand.
“It looked like a regular pimple, between my lip and my nose,” Lindsay, from Georgia, told NeedToKnow recently. “There was nothing out of the ordinary at all — that’s what makes it so wild that this even happened. There was nothing there the day before — we even did professional family pictures on Sunday.”
Dermatologists generally advise against popping pimples in this region.
DeOliveira said the pimple appeared on a Monday morning, and that was when she popped it. By the next day, the swelling had started, and she went to urgent care after her face began to droop. Doctors prescribed antibiotics, but she returned to urgent care twice more the following day as her condition continued to worsen. By Thursday, she was in the emergency room.
She said she never imagined it would escalate so dramatically.
“It was just like any other [pimple] — I had taken a shower and then wanted it to go away so I handled it like most people do,” DeOliveira said. “In the ER, they initially thought I was having an allergic reaction — that’s how swollen my face and lips were.”
Doctors told Lindsay she had developed cellulitis, a common but potentially serious bacterial skin infection that affects deeper layers of skin and can cause redness, swelling, warmth, and pain. Cellulitis requires prompt antibiotic treatment to prevent the infection from spreading into the bloodstream.
DeOliveira said she “couldn’t move” half of her face, and she was sent for an MRI to ensure her sinuses, eyes, and brain had not been impacted. She explained that, thankfully, scans showed her body had walled off the infection.
“I was given two heavy duty antibiotics in the ER, so totally changed off the others I was on as they weren’t working,” she said. “I was given Amoxi-Clav and Bactrim before I even left the ER. Two hours later, the swelling went way down.”
According to deOliveira, the cellulitis improved quickly, and within a few days her face was “almost back to normal.” However, she said the antibiotics left her feeling unwell, with symptoms lingering for nearly six weeks.
She added that she has now “returned to normal entirely,” although she has a small scar. “I can quite easily cover [it] with the tiniest dab of makeup, and most days don’t even bother,” she said.
When asked about warning others, Lindsay’s message was blunt: “Please don’t. Never again.”