Doctors: Face Transplant Was Successful

[Herman Munster]

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/11/28/D8LM81E00.html

A year after a Frenchwoman received the world's first partial face transplant, doctors say the operation was a success and she is gaining more and more sensitivity and facial mobility.
As British and American doctors work on plans for a first full-face transplant, the medical team at the hospital in Amiens in northern France issued a new photo and a statement Monday, exactly a year after they transplanted the lips, nose and chin of a brain-dead woman onto Isabelle Dinoire.

In the new photo, Dinoire is almost smiling, and appears to have better control over her face than she did at a news conference in February, her only formal public appearance since the operation.

Dinoire's immune system nearly rejected the transplant twice, the doctors' statement said, but she was given immuno-depressants that helped overcome the threat.

"The tolerance of the transplant is excellent," they said. The team has "confirmed the anatomical and functional success of this first partial face transplant."

"Progress, in terms of sensitivity as much as mobility, is being noted month after month," the doctors said.

[Olney Blue]

1. Good news!

[waiting for hope]

2. Not to pour oil on the subject -

but didn't she pick up smoking after the surgery? I smoke (flame me, frankly I don't really care) but if I had that kind of miracle bestowed on me, I don't think I would jeopardize it by smoking. Happy to see that it's working.

[Bucky]

3. Some people smoke to help relieve stress. Of course I don't know if she's under any stress.

:eyes:

[waiting for hope]

4. Stress....yeah, I have had

many a stress cigarette, especially after I quit drinking. But hell, driving and smoking isn't a dangerous as drinking and driving.

[Warpy]

8. Most organ transplants eventually fail

usually from chronic rejection, a type we really can't do much about. Major organ transplants have variable success, and I know a couple of heart transplant patients who are over 25 years out.

However, nobody knows the longevity of a face transplant. It's simply never been done before.

This lady knows that eventually the transplant will gradually fail, become less responsive and sensitive over time, and that she'll be back to square one with her horrific injuries.

Given that prognosis, she can do whatever she damned well pleases, IMO. She's certainly earned the right.

[lonestarnot]

9. Oh sure you wouldn't...

:smoke:

[Occulus]

5. Wow. I wouldn't give her a second glance on the street. n/t

[kestrel91316]

6. Her surgeons appear to have done a BEAUTIFUL job. A little

scarring on the upper right cheek is all I see.

[lonestarnot]

7. Fantastic! Now how do we identify Ken L.?