Woman Says She Has Feeling in New Face

[barb162]

Woman Says She Has Feeling in New Face

By Associated Press
Published April 30, 2006, 2:19 PM CDT


PARIS -- The French woman who received the world's first partial face transplant has complete feeling in the new tissue five months after the operation, she told a Sunday newspaper.

Isabelle Dinoire, 38, also told the newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche that the hardest part of her recovery appears to be getting to know herself again. When asked if she has accepted her new face, she responded: "It's too difficult to explain."

She takes out old photos and, shocked at the difference between her former face and her new one, tells herself that she simply has aged, she said.

Dinoire said her speech has improved as she has gained more facial mobility

snip

http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/sns-ap-france-face-transplant,1,2068922.story?coll=chi-news-hed

[Warpy]

1. Astonishing!

I know they could repair underlying muscle, but sensory nerves are a little more difficult. They seem to have repaired themselves.

Mme. Dinoire, I'll bet it's difficult to explain!

I'm wondering how I'll come to terms with seeing through someone else's eyes.

[mike_c]

2. I'm really surprised at the degree to which facial self-identity...

...seems to be a real problem for Ms. Dinoire, especially since the alternative to the transplant was evidently worse for her. It's hard to know what this means since no one else has had so profound an experience (other than permanent disfigurement, of course). Still, I'm surprised-- I wonder whether we're fundamentally hardwired to include our own face in our self-recognition? That would seem unlikely, given that seeing other peoples' faces has been so important a part of our psychological evolution, but it's only in fairly recent times (very recent in an evolutionary sense) that we've been able to see our own with any regularity.

[barb162]

3. I wonder if they have studied people who get mutiple surgeries

like Michael Jackson; the people who are transforming themselves a LOT

[mike_c]

4. now that you mention that, facial alterations like tattoos...

...and scarification have long cultural histories, but I still wonder how we perceive them in terms of self identification, since under normal circumstances-- the circumstances we evolved under-- we cannot easily see them on ourselves, only infer them from seeing them on others.

[barb162]

6. good questions.

and I have no answers

[barb162]

7. I have seen a few things on people who are looking for

physical perfection, which they never seem to find. This one woman had scores of surgeries done (hundreds of thousands of dollars), she was gorgeous and she still wanted a lot more surgeries. Another, a woman, was on a show with her husband...he said no more surgeries as she was driving them to the poorhouse.
This woman in the story, I am glad she had the work done and I think she is very brave for being public about it.

[TankLV]

5. Well, she's got every rupuke currently in control of our government beat!

Maybe the same doctors can implant a conscience and a facility for telling the truth and being honerable in repukes as well!

[mike_c]

8. never happen-- republicans can reject a conscience faster...

...than a pig's mitral valve, and truth is actually toxic to them. It's worse than flesh-eating bacteria, or even kryptonite.

[JPace]

9. Here is a link with a photograph and you do not

need to register.
http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2006/04/30/ap/health/d8hagrk00.txt

[psychopomp]

11. She doesn't look bad

I did not need to register.

What a horrible thing to happen, though: her face was mauled by her dog while she was self-medicated.

I hope she continues her progress toward recovery.

[0007]

10. What a story!