Isabelle Dinoire, a Frenchwoman who received the world’s first partial face transplant, has died 11 years after the surgery that set the stage for dozens of other transplants worldwide. She was 49.
The Amiens University Hospital in northern France said in a statement Tuesday that Dinoire died in April after a long illness. The hospital didn’t release any further details and it wasn’t clear if her illness was related to the transplant.
Her family wanted her death kept private. But the hospital went public with the death after Le Figaro reported on it.
After being severely disfigured by her pet Labrador, Dinoire was given a new nose, chin and lips in a ground-breaking, 15-hour operation in 2005 led by doctors Bernard Devauchelle and Jean-Michel Dubernard in the Amiens hospital. When she first appeared in public with her new face four months later, her speech was slurred and a scar clearly visible — but the fact that she could speak to reporters of having a “face like everyone else” and almost smile was seen as a medical breakthrough.
Dinoire died of cancer at a French hospital in April 2016. Her death was not announced until September 2016 to give her family privacy, according to hospital officials. According to newspaper Le Figaro, Dinoire's body had rejected the transplant in 2015 "and she had lost part of the use of her lips." The daily immunosuppressive drugs she was required to take left her vulnerable to cancer. Two cancers had developed, the paper said
Read printed with permission of associated press
The Amiens University Hospital in northern France said in a statement Tuesday that Dinoire died in April after a long illness. The hospital didn’t release any further details and it wasn’t clear if her illness was related to the transplant.
Her family wanted her death kept private. But the hospital went public with the death after Le Figaro reported on it.
After being severely disfigured by her pet Labrador, Dinoire was given a new nose, chin and lips in a ground-breaking, 15-hour operation in 2005 led by doctors Bernard Devauchelle and Jean-Michel Dubernard in the Amiens hospital. When she first appeared in public with her new face four months later, her speech was slurred and a scar clearly visible — but the fact that she could speak to reporters of having a “face like everyone else” and almost smile was seen as a medical breakthrough.
Dinoire died of cancer at a French hospital in April 2016. Her death was not announced until September 2016 to give her family privacy, according to hospital officials. According to newspaper Le Figaro, Dinoire's body had rejected the transplant in 2015 "and she had lost part of the use of her lips." The daily immunosuppressive drugs she was required to take left her vulnerable to cancer. Two cancers had developed, the paper said
Read printed with permission of associated press
Isabelle Dinoire, a Frenchwoman who received the world’s first partial face transplant, has died 11 years after the surgery that set the stage for dozens of other transplants worldwide. She was 49.
The Amiens University Hospital in northern France said in a statement Tuesday that Dinoire died in April after a long illness. The hospital didn’t release any further details and it wasn’t clear if her illness was related to the transplant.
Her family wanted her death kept private. But the hospital went public with the death after Le Figaro reported on it.
After being severely disfigured by her pet Labrador, Dinoire was given a new nose, chin and lips in a ground-breaking, 15-hour operation in 2005 led by doctors Bernard Devauchelle and Jean-Michel Dubernard in the Amiens hospital. When she first appeared in public with her new face four months later, her speech was slurred and a scar clearly visible — but the fact that she could speak to reporters of having a “face like everyone else” and almost smile was seen as a medical breakthrough.
Dinoire died of cancer at a French hospital in April 2016. Her death was not announced until September 2016 to give her family privacy, according to hospital officials. According to newspaper Le Figaro, Dinoire's body had rejected the transplant in 2015 "and she had lost part of the use of her lips." The daily immunosuppressive drugs she was required to take left her vulnerable to cancer. Two cancers had developed, the paper said
Read printed with permission of associated press
The Amiens University Hospital in northern France said in a statement Tuesday that Dinoire died in April after a long illness. The hospital didn’t release any further details and it wasn’t clear if her illness was related to the transplant.
Her family wanted her death kept private. But the hospital went public with the death after Le Figaro reported on it.
After being severely disfigured by her pet Labrador, Dinoire was given a new nose, chin and lips in a ground-breaking, 15-hour operation in 2005 led by doctors Bernard Devauchelle and Jean-Michel Dubernard in the Amiens hospital. When she first appeared in public with her new face four months later, her speech was slurred and a scar clearly visible — but the fact that she could speak to reporters of having a “face like everyone else” and almost smile was seen as a medical breakthrough.
Dinoire died of cancer at a French hospital in April 2016. Her death was not announced until September 2016 to give her family privacy, according to hospital officials. According to newspaper Le Figaro, Dinoire's body had rejected the transplant in 2015 "and she had lost part of the use of her lips." The daily immunosuppressive drugs she was required to take left her vulnerable to cancer. Two cancers had developed, the paper said
Read printed with permission of associated press
