World first face transplant

wind2000 · Oct 8, 2007

The French woman who underwent the world's first partial face transplant has learned to eat and speak but has yet to manage her biggest challenge: a kiss.
Isabelle Dinoire, who lost her mouth and nose after a dog bite, describes life with another woman's face in Le Baiser d'Isabelle - Isabelle's Kiss - published in France yesterday.

She tells the philosopher Noëlle Châtelet of the strangeness of feeling the inside of a stranger's mouth, and of finding a stray hair growing on her chin and realising that her donor was brunette. Though doctors have expressed doubts that she will ever be able to kiss, she is determined to learn.

Ms Dinoire, 40, a divorced mother of two, explains the circumstances that led to her losing half her face. After a bad week, the seamstress had taken a large dose of sleeping pills "to forget". She woke on her sofa and tried to light a cigarette, and then noticed blood and the presence of her dog beside her. Looking in the mirror, she discovered her terrible injuries.
For months before the transplant, she had "the face of a monster". She had no mouth and her teeth and gums were exposed, skull-like, in a "reminder of death". Most of her nose was missing. But she said she had "no hatred" for her labrador-cross Tanya, who she felt had been trying to save her.

After a tense wait for a donor and the lengthy transplant operation in November 2005, Ms Dinoire immediately liked her new nose, mouth and chin.

Ms Dinoire describes her anger at British tabloid journalists who she felt hounded her after her operation and traced her donor's family. One day, a hospital worker was surprised to find her on her bed surrounded by wads of euro notes, deeply disturbed. She muttered: "A journalist..." The money was returned.

It was through British press reports that she discovered her donor had killed herself. She says she feels a bond to her "twin sister" through their suicidal urges. "That it was someone who wanted to die, like me... It's odd to know that she saved me," she said.

At first, Ms Dinoire had to eat in front of a mirror because of the lack of feeling in her mouth. "One day I burned my lips without noticing. After that I would use my fingers to feel the temperature of my food first."

The hardest thing was accepting the inside of "someone else's" mouth. "It was odd to touch it with my tongue. It was soft. It was horrible."

She said of the discovery of a hair on her chin: "It was odd. I'd never had one. I thought, it's me that has given it life, but the hair is hers.

When she dreams, she has her old face. She does not want to get rid of her identity card, with a photo of her original face, because she feels her old self will disappear. But she says she has rebuilt her life. Even before the operation, she had bought a new dog. It licks her on the ears, but instinctively never on the grafted part of her face.

She returns to the hospital in Amiens where the operation was carried out for a weekly check-up, and still takes medication to stop her body rejecting her new face. She said: "Sometimes I put my hand to my face to check that it's still there."
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2183999,00.html

Hope everything works out for her. And kudos to her "twin sister" to have done what she did.

[N] · Oct 8, 2007

reminds me of the guy with the removable face. But for face transplanting, i think it's very scary to look yourself in the mirror...can be overwhelming because you see someone else.

ah_wong201 · Oct 9, 2007

the second picture looks like a bad photoshop. the face is darker than the neck

tree · Oct 9, 2007

It sounds so weird to know that you actually can feel differences that it's someone else's mouth...wonder how they did the surgery........ +_+

hadouken · Oct 9, 2007

if that happen to me and they offered me brad pitt face hell yea! someone ugly woulda kinda suck since ive always been good looking. lol not to be conceited of course =P

xiaojia · Oct 9, 2007

^ lol.. post a pic.. haha.. kidding

so i wonder.. is the pic on the left the 'old' her b4 being bitten? and the right the 'new' her?

heyitskev · Oct 9, 2007

lmao.. i barely read the title and im laughing already.. like you gotta be REALLY ugly to get one of these.. haha

shw · Oct 9, 2007

you guys havent seen her face without the fake facereplacement.
horrible.

chi_man · Oct 9, 2007

it remains ugly though

wheezo · Oct 9, 2007

heyitskev said: ↑

lmao.. i barely read the title and im laughing already.. like you gotta be REALLY ugly to get one of these.. haha
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her face got messed up cuz of her dog... -.-
dog got hungry?

hadouken · Oct 9, 2007

if u guys seen the movie "darkman" you'd know what her face looks like.. sick! i think her dog was trying to wake her up cuz it thought she was dying or dead? If i ever get a dog , a big one im gonna keep in mind to leave it in another room when i sleep i dont ever want to be like that ever!

tomatoman · Oct 10, 2007

why does she still have the same look as before.....if she is gonna have an operation on her face...might as well choose another differenct face....one younger looking.

xmichelly · Oct 10, 2007

ang said: ↑

if that happen to me and they offered me brad pitt face hell yea! someone ugly woulda kinda suck since ive always been good looking. lol not to be conceited of course =P
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lol you're so modest ...

World first face transplant

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