That day after her bath she was swaddled and placed in her caught by her mother.
Wrapped snuggly in the scarf, Leyla was in the room with her cousins when the horrible accident occurred.
Her cousins were playing with fire at the time when the scarf bundling Leyla caught alight and she went up in flames with it.
Miraculously she survived.
At school Leyla was teased an shunned for her appearance which caused her to be homeschooled for the majority of her childhood.
Leyla told Haber Turk that she was lucky to find a teacher that could teach her at home ‘They didn’t take me to school, they were afraid of me,’ Leyla described the bullying she endured at the hands of her peers.
Her father Said Demirci said that because he was unemployed he could not afford plastic surgery for Leyla.
Now almost 20 years on from the accident she is set to receive a face transplant.
The surgeon Dr. Ömer Özkan who is set to perform the surgery has carried out five of the seven face transplants across Turkey.
Leyla should undergo surgery on Tuesday.
