A NEW York City woman is sharing her recovery story after being randomly attacked with acid in an assault that left her with third-degree burns.

After undergoing 10 surgeries from the near-death experience, Juanita Jimenez is working to regain her confidence.

At around 1 a.m. on December 2, 2022, Jimenez was commuting to her job as a primary care assistant at Kings County Hospital when she noticed a woman being disruptive on the train.

The 22-year-old then felt someone following her off the train at her stop.

The woman, later identified as Rodlin Gravesande, threw sulfuric acid on Jimenez in an unprovoked attack.

Jimenez told People that the two had not exchanged any words.

“But when we had gotten to the top of the steps at the train station, that’s when she threw the acid at me and ran away before I could even open my eyes,” said Jimenez.

“And being that it was one o’clock in the morning, I was the only one at that moment,” she added.

“So it just seemed like she targeted me. I was the only young lady there.” 

While she claims she didn’t know it was acid at the time of the attack, she knew it was some form of “poison” based on the way it burned her clothes and “hurt immediately,” she told People.

Covered in third-degree burns, Jimenez walked herself two blocks to the hospital where she told her coworkers about the attack and began rinsing herself off, following what she knew of the hospital’s “unknown substance protocol.”

In what she described as “excruciating pain,” she was transferred to Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx for further care in the hospital’s burn unit.

The Harlem native and senior at Lehman College suffered second-and third-degree burns on the left side of her face.

The accident left her nostril “disintegrated” and the blood vessel under her cheek completely damaged, she told People.

Jimenez’s initial treatment involved a seven-day stay in the burn ICU and multiple debridement surgeries to remove the dead and infected skin.

Gravesande, meanwhile, was arrested more than a month after the attack in Atlanta, Georgia.

She has pleaded not guilty and remains behind bars on Rikers Island on $250,000 bail.

ROAD TO RECOVERY

With 10 surgeries behind her, Jimenez has been left with significant scars that have taken major hits to her confidence and self-esteem.

As a young model who did natural photoshoots without makeup, she told People she “[cried] every night” and has been forced to relive the accident every time she’s asked about it.

“There’s days that it’s like I’m sulking into a depression and stuff,” she told People.

“Some days it is really hard to get out of bed. For the first eight months after the assault, I didn’t leave my home.”

But finding the right therapist and plastic surgeon, who offered to do her facial reconstructive surgery pro bono, was half of the battle.

She has since undergone the first reconstructive surgery — a cervicofacial flap, which is the first in a series of procedures she will have done by Dr. Carl Truesdale, a Los Angeles-based plastic surgeon.

Jimenez said she’s extremely happy with the results of the surgery and how it has since helped her to regain confidence.

“My goal is to help people with mental health and knowing that even if you are suffering with trauma, you could still be positive,” she said.

“Some days are harder than others, but we could still push forward.” 

The U.S. Sun reached out to Juanita Jimenez in a request for comment.