Isabelle Dinoire: Life after the world's first face transplant
Seven years ago Isabelle Dinoire became the first-ever person to have a face transplant. In a rare interview, she describes how she copes with the stares, and her yearning to meet the family of the woman whose face became her own.
"The most difficult thing is to find myself again, as the person I was, with the face I had before the accident. But I know that's not possible," says the 45-year-old mother of two from northern France.
"When I look in the mirror, I see a mixture of the two [of us]. The donor is always with me."
After a moment, she adds: "She saved my life."
Dinoire regularly turns down media requests and rarely agrees to be photographed. She comes across as relaxed and self-assured, but her traumatic ordeal has left its mark, physically and mentally.
She still has a visible scar running from above her nose to down under her chin where specialist doctors at Amiens University Hospital in northern France, spent 15 hours sewing the donor's face on to hers. One of her eyes is slightly drooping.
“
If people stare at me insistently, I don't care any more, I just stare back”
Speaking with a slight impediment - and with almost alarming simplicity - she recounts how, in a fit of depression in May 2005, she took an overdose of sleeping pills in an attempt to end her life.
She awoke to find herself at home, lying beside a pool of blood, with her pet Labrador at her side. The dog had apparently found her unconscious, and desperate to rouse her, had gnawed away at her face.
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good article, worth a read
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