Isabelle Dinoire

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Isabelle Dinoire, born 1967, was the first person to undergo a partial face transplant, after her dog mauled her in May 2005. Prior to the operation, she could barely eat or speak but after the operation, she can do both.

Isabelle Dinoire lives in Valenciennes, northern France. She is divorced and has two teenage daughters.

According to The Australian, she has signed a contract with British documentary maker Michael Hughes that could make her more than £100,000 from the sale of photographs and a film of the operation.

Some reports claimed that her daughter has said the dog was trying to wake Dinoire after she took sleeping pills in a suicide attempt. The hospital has denied this. In a statement made on February 6, 2006, she admitted that "after a very upsetting week, with many personal problems, I took some pills to forget ... I fainted and fell on the ground, hitting a piece of furniture." [1]

[edit] Partial face transplant

The world's first partial face transplant on a living human was carried out on Dinoire on November 27, 2005 [2] by a team of surgeons led by Professor Jean-Michel Dubernard (the surgeon who performed the first successful hand transplant in 1998) and Professor Bernard Devauchelle in Amiens, France. A triangle of face tissue including a brain-dead human's nose and mouth was grafted onto the patient [3] [4]. "Scientists elsewhere have performed scalp and ear transplants. However, the claim is the first for a mouth and nose transplant. Experts say the mouth and nose are the most difficult parts of the face to transplant." [5]

A debate over the ethics of the operation emerged, however, after it was alleged that Dinoire's face had been ravaged by her labrador while she was asleep after attempting suicide by consuming an excessive amount of sleeping pills, and that her donor, Maryline St. Aubert, 46, had committed suicide by hanging. Concern was raised over Dinoire's ability to consent to the transplant, considering her mental state. Dubernard strenuously denied that Dinoire had attempted suicide, while Devauchelle insisted he would not have conducted the transplant if he had known that St. Aubert had hanged herself, as he feared the blood vessels in her face would be damaged. [6]

Whether the challenging surgery will be proven successful in the long run is yet to be seen. It was reported on January 18, 2006 that Dinoire has used her new lips to continue smoking, which doctors fear will cause the face tissue in her transplant to be rejected. [7]

There has been a change in her appearance. Her original face had a wide, tilted nose, a prominent chin and thin lips. The donated face has given her a straight and narrow nose, a neater chin and a fuller mouth. Dinoire appeared in a press conference on February 6, 2006, which showed that she had partial control over the transplanted muscles, although she appeared unable to close her mouth fully.

Exactly one year following the partial face transplant, Dinoire stated she has the ability to smile again. On November 28, 2006, Dinoire's surgeon, Bernard Devauchell, said that over the past year Dinoire’s scars have become far less prominent. [8]