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Face transplant patient shows features
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-07 07:14
In terms of coloring, the match between Dinoire's own skin and the graft was
remarkable, though she wore makeup.
Doctors showed slides of her progress, her scar growing fainter each week.
The donor's nose had been bruised during efforts to save her before she died,
but the mark healed after the tissue was transplanted to Dinoire, a sign the
graft was successful, surgeons said.
Dinoire spoke frankly about the horrific attack in May by her pet Labrador.
She said she was wrestling with personal problems at the time and "took some
drugs to forget" after a trying week, which knocked her out.
"When I woke up, I tried to light a cigarette, and I didn't understand why I
couldn't hold it between my lips," she said. "That's when I saw the pool of
blood and the dog next to me. I looked at myself in the mirror, and there,
horrified, I couldn't believe what I saw — especially because it didn't hurt.
Ever since this day, my life has changed."
She also explained the difficulties of life with disfigurement, saying she
suffered stares when she went out. "I understand all people who have a
handicap," she said.
Dinoire said she "accepted immediately" when her surgeons suggested the
transplant. But the procedure has been unable to restore the way she looked
before the dog mauling.
"There's no comparison between the face I have today and the face I had seven
months ago, it is totally different," she said, adding she was eager to return
home to her teenage daughters and find a job.
"I want to have a normal life again," she said.
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