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Isabelle Dinoire, born 1967, was the first person to undergo a partial face transplant, after her dog mauled her at her home in May 2005. According to her daughter, the dog was trying to wake Miss Dinoire after she took sleeping pills in a suicide attempt. Prior to the operation she could barely eat or speak but after the operation, she could do both.

Miss Dinoire lives in Valenciennes, Northern France. She is divorced and has two teenage daughters.

According to The Australian, the Frenchwoman has signed a deal 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.

Partial face transplant

The world's first partial face transplant on a living human was carried out on Dinoire on November 27 2005 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 from a brain-dead human's nose and mouth was grafted onto the patient . "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."

A debate over the ethics of the operation emerged, however, after it was alleged that Dinoire had had her face ravaged by the dog while she was asleep after attempting suicide by consuming an excessive amount of sleeping pills, and that her donor, Maryline St. Aubert, 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 knew St. Aubert had hanged herself, as he feared the blood vessels in her face would be damaged.

Whether the challenging surgery will be proven successful, is yet to be seen.

References

• The Australian
• The Daily Mail
• Smith, Craig S. (Dec. 14, 2005). "As a Face Transplant Heals, Flurries of Questions Arise". New York Times.

Notes

1. - Smith "As a Face Transplant Heals, Flurries of Questions Arise".

• Current events
• Ethics
• Suicide
• Transplantation medicine