World | Other World Stories
French transplant woman faces identity crisis
Isabelle Dinoire admitted that three years on from the medical breakthrough, she remained uncertain as to whose face she looked at in the mirror every day.
- The Daily Telegraph
- Published: 00:23 November 4, 2008
Paris: The woman who underwent the world's first face transplant is still struggling to come to terms with her looks.
Isabelle Dinoire admitted that three years on from the medical breakthrough, she remained uncertain as to whose face she looked at in the mirror every day.
Referring to the dead donor, Miss Dinoire, 41, a divorced mother of two from northern France, said: "It's not hers, it's not mine, it's somebody else's.
"Before the operation, I expected my new face would look like me but it turned out after the operation that it was half me and half her."
She said she had not yet worked out her new identity, adding: "It takes an awful lot of time to get used to someone else's face. It's a peculiar type of transplant."
Such psychological difficulties will concern British doctors from the Royal Free Hospital in London who have been given permission by the ethics board of the National Health Service to carry out the world's first full face transplant.
Ethical committees
Surgeons have been transplanting livers, kidneys and hearts for many years, but faces have always been different.
They are seen as a sacred, untouchable parts of a person's identity.
Unlike other organs, face transplants are not life-saving operations. As a result, ethical committees frequently blocked them from going ahead.
But Jean-Michel Dubernard said after carrying out the operation: "Once I had seen Isabelle's disfigured face, no more needed to be said. I was convinced something had to be done for this patient."
Dinoire, from Valenciennes, was given a new nose, mouth and chin at the nearby Amiens Hospital in 2005. She was rushed to hospital after her pet dog apparently ripped off the vital features. Dinoire had no memory of what happened.
Rejection of the new tissue was brought under control by increasing the doses of immunosuppressant drugs, which Dinoire is still taking.
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