Transplant Patient Can Feel Her Face

The French recipient of the world's first partial face transplant told a Sunday newspaper that she has full sensation in her face and has begun speaking more clearly.

"The scars have considerably healed. The doctors are confident. In addition, I have recovered total feeling," Isabelle Dinoire told the French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.

The 38-year-old woman, who lost much of her face when her pet Labrador mauled her as she was passed out from sedating drugs, underwent the pioneer surgery Nov. 27. She last spoke to reporters in February.

Dinoire said she still has difficulty with pronouncing sounds such as "b" or "p," which rely heavily on the lips, and said she remains shocked at the difference between her old and new face. "I still have a little problem of facial mobility, symmetry as the doctors say," she said.

The mother of two continues to take anti-rejection medications, although her total regimen has now dropped from 20 pills per day to 10.

Dinoire said she remains grateful to the family of the deceased donor. "Each day that passes, I think, above all, of the donor and her family whom I cannot thank enough," she told the paper.

During the 15 hours of surgery, a team of doctors replaced a gaping hole from a dog mauling with a partial face that included a new nose, mouth and chin.

Before the transplant, Dinoire's lipless gums and teeth were permanently exposed and most of her nose was missing, torn off by her pet Labrador who disfigured her as she lay knocked out from drugs she took to forget a trying week. She wore a surgical mask in public to avoid frightening people.

Today, Dinoire says, she still only leaves her apartment if accompanied and has not replaced the mirrors she removed from her home after the accident.

The journey to full recovery is far from over for Dinoire, who spoke with the newspaper in a small room at the Amiens teaching hospital.

Each week, she visits the Amiens hospital for a battery of tests, re-education sessions and visits with a psychologist. Each month, she must travel to a hospital in Lyon, in southeast France, where she spent weeks after the operation receiving an anti-rejection treatment so her body would accept the new tissue. She is given more tests and her treatment is adjusted, she said.

In addition, several times a day she must examine a small patch of skin from the donor on her stomach, a "sentinel ... that should sound the alarm if something goes wrong," she said. She also has to do the same with her face, examining it in a magnifying mirror — the only mirror now in her home.

However, the hardest part appears to be getting to know herself again. Has she accepted her new face? "It's too difficult to explain," she told the paper. She takes out old photos and, shocked at the difference, tells herself that she has simply aged, she said.