She has earned the moniker “unluckiest woman in the world” for a reason.
Alli McLaren, a social media sensation, suffered a broken jaw after being struck in the face by a homeless person in an unprovoked attack. As if that weren’t terrible enough, her broken jaw immediately led to a brain tumour diagnosis, and she later got hit by a car while travelling to radiation therapy.
“I’m that friend that lives that ‘can’t catch a break dramatic lifestyle,’ ” McLaren, 30, a Los Angeles transplant from Australia, said sarcastically in her viral TikTok testimonial.
The content creator and aspiring actress described the string of unfortunate and life-threatening incidents she has gone through, starting with her assault in October 2021, in the video, which has received over 1.6 million views. In August 2021, two months before her life took a dark turn, she shared her dating woes with The Post.
“He walked across the road and I saw him out of the corner of my eye. He ran straight up to me and punched me,” McLaren told Media Drum. “He punched through my phone, which broke from the impact, and I fell over. It all happened in about two seconds.”
After the brutal ambush, McLaren went to a West Hollywood urgent care centre to get medical help. Doctors there discounted her worries since they said she “looked good.”
Her jaw had been shattered as a result of the home-insecure person’s attack, a dentist confirmed months later when her teeth started suddenly falling out of her mouth while she was driving.
McLaren was forced to wait another two months before having oral surgery to correct the fracture after attempts to wire her jaw back into place failed.
Advertisement@notallialicee Also i randomly got stuck in canada for 9 months during COVID lol #toxic #foryou #fyp #bestie ♬ original sound – Alli McLaren
She outlined her situation on TikTok, saying, “I had to have jaw surgery to cure it, and because of how weak my immune system was, I ended up having an infection and pneumonia.”
However, she collapsed and banged her head while suffering from pneumonia, resulting in a traumatic brain injury that led to back-to-back seizures.
McLaren started having more seizures, started vomiting, and experienced mood swings, unexplainable rage, and bewilderment just two months after starting treatment for the seizures.
In the end, medical professionals found a non-cancerous giant cell tumour developing in her brain.
The majority of the bulk was removed, but radiation was also recommended to get rid of any remaining cells. Early in January 2023, a car who failed to stop at a stop sign ran over McLaren as she was on her way to a nearby hospital for radiation therapy.
McLaren was injured in the collision, breaking both feet.
And while the majority of shocked viewers online were empathetic to the unfortunate actor’s condition, some congratulated the homeless guy for delivering the punch that resulted in the tumor’s discovery.
Okay but the homeless guy kinda saved your life?, one audacious commenter commented crudely. There were nearly 43,000 likes for the comment.
McLaren, however, doesn’t seem to feel especially thankful toward her attacker.
“I don’t agree,” she said. “Although it would be a great story for the homeless man, the only thing he’s done for me is cause me a lot of stress and medical bills.”
“The timing of everything doesn’t work for him to have helped me discover the tumor, as it wasn’t there when I was originally hit,” McLaren continued.
“Although the cause for this type of tumor is unknown,” she conceded, “a possible explanation I’ve been given is that it may be the result of head trauma, so he may have even caused it.”
And her medical struggles are compounded by the new mental and emotional health issues she has endured since the pummeling.
“I have really struggled to be honest. I’ve had both really bad depression and anxiety,” she admitted. “I also get really uncomfortable walking near people on the street because I don’t trust anyone.”
The ambush has caused a downward spiral in both her professional life and personal relationships.
“I got demoted from my job because I had to work from home so much and I ended up leaving after that, so financially it’s been a strain,” confessed the survivor.
“I have nowhere near as many friends as I used to,” McLaren went on venting.
