Face to Face with Recipient of World's First Facial Transplant
Hamida Ghafour
Globe and Mail, Canada
________________
Amiens (France):
Heavy makeup camouflaged the two deep scars on both sides of Isabelle Dinoire's cheeks and her voice was muffled because she was not used to her new mouth.
But she was grateful and ready to resume a normal life. Ms. Dinoire, the woman who made medical history when she underwent the world's first facial transplant, appeared in public yesterday for the first time since her surgery three months ago.
As she hesitantly walked into the auditorium of the Amiens University Hospital in the northern French town of Amiens, the room lit up with the flashes from dozens of cameras awaiting her arrival."Since the operation, I have got a face like everyone else," she said in a slurred voice, as her psychiatrist sat to her left, nodding encouragingly. "A door to the future is opening. I want to start a normal life again with my family and I want to get a job."
She sat quietly as the surgeons explained the elaborate procedures to graft a nose, chin and lips on her face after it was torn off by her Labrador-cross last May as she slept at her home in Valenciennes in northern France. Graphic photographs of her mangled face flashed on the screen, but if Ms. Dinoire, 39, was overwhelmed, she did not show it.
The operation, led by Prof. Jean-Michel Dubernard and carried out by two teams of 50 medical specialists, was also a triumph for France, which was competing against medical teams in America and other parts of Europe in what has been called the "face race."
Feb 07, 2006
Hamida Ghafour
Globe and Mail, Canada
________________
Amiens (France):
Heavy makeup camouflaged the two deep scars on both sides of Isabelle Dinoire's cheeks and her voice was muffled because she was not used to her new mouth.
But she was grateful and ready to resume a normal life. Ms. Dinoire, the woman who made medical history when she underwent the world's first facial transplant, appeared in public yesterday for the first time since her surgery three months ago.
As she hesitantly walked into the auditorium of the Amiens University Hospital in the northern French town of Amiens, the room lit up with the flashes from dozens of cameras awaiting her arrival."Since the operation, I have got a face like everyone else," she said in a slurred voice, as her psychiatrist sat to her left, nodding encouragingly. "A door to the future is opening. I want to start a normal life again with my family and I want to get a job."
She sat quietly as the surgeons explained the elaborate procedures to graft a nose, chin and lips on her face after it was torn off by her Labrador-cross last May as she slept at her home in Valenciennes in northern France. Graphic photographs of her mangled face flashed on the screen, but if Ms. Dinoire, 39, was overwhelmed, she did not show it.
The operation, led by Prof. Jean-Michel Dubernard and carried out by two teams of 50 medical specialists, was also a triumph for France, which was competing against medical teams in America and other parts of Europe in what has been called the "face race."
Feb 07, 2006
