First face transplant recipient dies at age 49

Her operation was "an unquestionable surgical success" and the medical community learned from her experience, said Dr. Jean-Paul Meningaud, who heads the reconstructive surgery department at the Henri Mondor Hospital south of Paris and wasn't involved in treating Dinoire.

But Meningaud, who has been involved in seven of France's 10 face transplants, is now arguing for suspending the procedures so that the medical community can take stock of whether the long-term benefits are worth the physical and psychological toll they take on patients.

In Dinoire's case, "The results were very good in the medium term, but the long-term results were not so good," Meningaud said.

He said that face transplant recipients are having more difficulty with anti-rejection medication than doctors initially predicted, and are requiring more follow-up surgery.

"It's a rather high price to pay for the patient. It's time to mark a pause," he said.

Her immune system nearly rejected the transplant twice. A year later, doctors said she was gaining more and more sensitivity and facial mobility, and she got herself a new dog.

"I can open my mouth and eat. I feel my lips, my nose and my mouth," Dinoire said at a news conference in 2006.

"I have a face like everyone else," she said. "A door to the future is opening."