New face delights mauling victim

Mother of two thanks donor’s family from ‘the bottom of my heart’

LYONS — The woman who underwent the world’s first face transplant said Sunday that she had looked at her reflection and was delighted with the results of the pioneering operation.

Speaking from her hospital bed in Lyons, Isabelle Dinoire, 38, who lost her chin, lips and part of her nose when she was mauled by her pet Labrador cross, said: “I have been looking at myself in the mirror. It is very impressive. They have given me back my face.’’

As Dinoire recovered from the 15-hour operation performed last weekend, it emerged that the source of her new face was a 38year- old woman who hanged herself. “ I am very grateful to this woman. It’s great. Now I can live again,’’ said Dinoire, a mother of two teenage girls who worked as a wool saleswoman before she became unemployed last year.

“I thank her family for giving their permission for this operation. I thank them from the bottom of my heart.’’

Dinoire also confirmed that the attack happened after she had tried to commit suicide by taking an overdose of tablets at her home in Valenciennes, northern France, in May.

She said her dog scratched ferociously at her face in an attempt to revive her after she had fallen unconscious on the sofa. She didn’t say why she had wanted to die.

After the attack, Dinoire’s face was covered with a surgical mask in such a way that she was unable to see the extent of her injuries during the seven months before the operation at a hospital in Amiens.

Before the operation, Dinoire found it hard to breathe, eat or drink.

Since the surgery, her doctors say she has been able to drink coffee and fruit juice.

The operation sparked a debate over the ethics of face transplants, with some doctors arguing that the psychological consequences of the surgery were too serious.

However, Simon Weston, a former Welsh Guard who suffered serious burns during the Falklands war, said he supported surgery to reconstruct a person’s face.

“There are people on the brink of s u i c i d e i n t h i s country because they have suffered severe facial trauma in car crashes, fires or subways blowing up,’’ he told The Observer newspaper.

“If somebody has cancer, we treat them. If somebody has a deformed foot, we help them.

“If somebody has something internal that needs transplanting, we help them. They all involve risks. Because this is on the outside, why should we not help?

“ Now we have seen these amazing pictures of this lady who will now be left with a pencil- line scar rather than a gaping hole in her face, the naysayers don’t have a leg to stand on.’’ Daily Telegraph