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| Isabelle Dinoire at a news conference at Amiens hospital in northern France |
The Frenchwoman who received the world's first partial facetransplantshowed off her new features Monday, and her scar: a faint, circular line ofbuckledskin around her nose, lips and chin. But where she once had a gaping hole caused by a dog bite, she now has a face.
Isabelle Dinoire, a 38-year-old mother of two, spoke with a heavyslurand had trouble moving her lips at her first news conference since the surgery in November. But said she was looking forward to resuming a normal life.
"Since the day of my operation, I have a face like everyone else," Dinoire said, reading from a prepared statement.
She also thanked the family of the brain-dead female donor, who gave her new lips, a chin and nose and distributed a heart, liver, pancreas and kidneys to others.
"Despite their pain and mourning, they accepted to give a second life to people in need," Dinoire said. "Thanks to them, a door to the future is opening for me and others."
Before the 15-hour surgery in Amiens on Nov. 27, Dinoire's lipless gums and teeth were permanently exposed and most of her nose was missing. Fooddribbledfrom her mouth. She wore a surgical mask in public to avoid frightening people.
Dinoire, still hospitalized for physical therapy, said she was regaining sensation and was not in pain.
"I can open my mouth and eat. I feel my lips, my nose and my mouth," she said. While one of her surgeons was speaking, she drank from a plastic cup - a simple gesture that produced aflurryof camera flashes.
Her mouth appeared slightly lopsided and was usually open slightly. When she laughed, she seemed unable to bring her lips together to form a full smile. She also had difficulty pronouncing letters like "b" and "p" that require pursing the lips - a skill her doctors said will improve with time.
In terms of coloring, the match between Dinoire's own skin and thegraftwas remarkable, though she wore makeup.
Doctors showed slides of her progress, her scar growing fainter each week. The donor's nose had been bruised during efforts to save her before she died, but the mark healed after the tissue was transplanted to Dinoire, a sign the graft was a successful, surgeon said.
Dinoire spoke frankly about the horrific attack in May by her pet Labrador. She said she was wrestling with personal problems at the time and "took some drugs to forget" after a trying week, which knocked her out.
(Agencies)
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Updated: 2006-02-10 09:07
