French Woman with New Face Speaks to Reporters

Isabelle Dinoire, the woman who received a new nose, chin, and mouth on November 27 in Amiens, France, spoke to reporters Sunday during her first public press conference since the transplant. Dinoire’s name and image had been kept secret after the operation to allow her to recuperate and heal in private, so this was the world’s first glimpse of the woman with the new face.

Dinoire, 38, told reporters that she has complete feeling in the new tissue implanted into her face, but the hardest part of the recovery has been getting to know herself again. When reporters asked if she has accepted her new face now, she replied, "It’s too difficult to explain." When she looks at old photos of herself and feels startled by the difference now, she tells herself that she simply has aged. Dinoire said that her speech has improved during her rehabilitation as the new tissue has gained more mobility and flexibility. During a news conference in February, her words were difficult to understand because her new mouth was frozen open. But today, she says, "I still have a little problem of mobility, symmetry as the doctors say."

Today the young woman leaves her apartment only if accompanied, and she has not replaced any of the mirrors she removed from her house after the attack. She visits the hospital each week for tests, re-education treatments, and a psychologist appointment. Each month, she travels to a hospital in Lyon to undergo more testing and have her treatments adjusted. She originally was taking 20 pills a day, but is now down to only 10. In addition, several times a day she examines a small patch of skin on her stomach from the donor. The skin is a "sentinel…that should sound the alarm if something goes wrong," she said.

Dinoire lost most of her face last year when her pet Labrador mauled her while she was knocked out from medication she took to lessen the stress of a trying week. After the attack, most of her nose and lips were missing, and her teeth were permanently exposed. She wore a surgical mask in public to avoid frightening people. When surgeons undertook the task of repairing her face, the surgery took 15 hours. The gaping hold in her face was filled in with transplant tissue from a donor that included a new nose, mouth, and chin. "Each day that passes, I think, above all, of the donor and her family whom I cannot thank enough," Dinoire told reporters. "We must not forget that today, thanks to them, I have become visible again."