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Face transplant patient shows features
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-07 07:14

The Frenchwoman who received the world's first partial face transplant showed off her new features Monday, and her scar: a faint, circular line of buckled skin 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 at a news conference at Amiens hospital in northern France yesterday. [Reuters]
Isabelle Dinoire, a 38-year-old mother of two, spoke with a heavy slur and 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. Food dribbled from 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 a flurry of 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.
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