Dec 10, 2005 8:04 pm US/Eastern
Report: No Regrets After Face Transplant
LONDON (AP) ―
The French woman who received the world's first partial face transplant says she was amazed to see her new face in the mirror and has no regrets about the operation, a British newspaper reported Saturday.
The patient, whose identity has not been disclosed, underwent the groundbreaking operation last month in which doctors grafted a nose, chin and lips from a brain-dead donor onto her face. The woman was disfigured earlier this year when mauled by her dog.
"When I looked at my new face I knew straight away that it was me," Britain's Daily Mail quoted the 38-year-old patient as saying. "It was amazing to see a nose and mouth on my face again."
The newspaper did not explain how it obtained the woman's comments. The article was datelined from Valenciennes, northern France, where the woman lives, though she is convalescing 400 miles to the south at a hospital in Lyon.
The woman said she still had no feeling in her face, as the nerves were not yet working correctly, the Daily Mail reported. Doctors hoped feeling would return in six months to a year, she said.
The patient said she had taken a walk in the hospital, but was "very scared of leaving" and being recognized as the face transplant recipient, the paper said.
"I just want to live a normal life, without being stared at all the time," she said. "It's still too early to think about the future. But I regret nothing — if I was asked again, I would do it again."
The woman's prior psychological condition — and questions raised in the media about whether she tried to commit suicide before being maimed by the dog — have fueled ethical questions in the case.
London's Sunday Times reported a week ago that it spoke to the woman by mobile phone and that she acknowledged taking an overdose of sleeping pills during a fit of depression this spring. That night, she was mauled by her Labrador in circumstances still unclear.
One of the woman's two teenage daughters told the Daily Mail that she was sure her mother had tried to end her life. Transplant surgeon Jean-Michel Dubernard, however, insisted repeatedly that his patient had not tried to kill herself.
(© 2005 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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