Seven years ago, Isabelle Dinoir became the first person in history to receive a face transplant. In one of her interviews, she told how she copes with the glances of passers-by and about her desire to meet the woman's family, whose face has become her own.
“The hardest part is finding yourself again. Become the person I was before the accident. But I know this is impossible. When I look in the mirror, I see a mixture of two people. My donor is always with me. She saved my life,”says the 45-year-old mother of two from northern France.
Dinoir regularly turns down the media and rarely agrees to be photographed. She gives the impression of being calm and confident in herself, but what she went through has left its mark - physical and psychological. She still has a fairly noticeable scar running from her nose to her chin. These marks were left by doctors at the University Hospital in Amiens, northern France, who transplanted a donor's face for 15 hours.
With a little difficulty speaking and a little anxiety, the woman recounts how, in a bout of depression in May 2005, she took too much sleeping pills in an attempt to end her life. When she awoke, Dinoir found herself in her own house, lying in a pool of blood, and her dog was lying nearby. The Labrador apparently found her unconscious and was desperate to wake her up. In its attempts, the pet chewed the woman's entire face.
“I couldn't even imagine that it was my face and my blood,” she says.
The injuries to the mouth, nose and chin were so severe that doctors immediately ruled out the possibility of routine facial reconstruction. Instead, they proposed an innovative face transplant.
“The first time I saw myself in the mirror after the operation, I realized that it was a victory. Yes, I couldn't see everything the doctors did because my face was covered with bandages, but I had a nose, I had a mouth - it was incredible. I saw in the eyes of the nurse that it was a success,”says Dinoir.
The woman was unable to speak due to a tracheotomy, which was necessary for the operation. The only thing she could say was "Thank you."
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However, Dinoir's delight from her new face quickly passed. She was completely unprepared for the attention that fell on her. Hounded by the media, suffering from excessive attention from passers-by and curious onlookers, Dinoir spent the long months after the operation, hiding in her house, not deciding to go outside.
“It was excruciating. I live in a small town and everyone here knew my story. It was not easy at the very beginning. The children laughed at me and everyone said: "Look, this is her, this is her." Over time, I began to get used to my new face. This is how I look, who I am. If people look at me too intently, I don't worry anymore, I just don't pay attention to them,”Dinoir says, smiling.
People still recognize her in their hometown, but their attention is no longer "as cruel" as before.
When asked whether she has changed as a person, the woman quickly replies: "No, I am the same as I was before, only with a different face."
According to Professor Sylvia Testelin, who is part of the Dinoir facial transplant team in Amiens, not every patient with severe facial trauma has a chance of a transplant. In 2005, no one was sure of the results of such an operation. A person with a transplanted face has to take a cocktail of drugs for the rest of their life to prevent rejection of new tissue.
“No one can imagine what it would be like to live without a face. Isabelle can. But we need to be sure that it will help the patient,”says Testeli.
Since 2005, around 12 successful face transplants have been performed worldwide - in the United States, Spain, Turkey and China.
“You cannot imagine the number of people who would like to have a transplant, but this is not a game or a race for the number of operations. One day, Dinoir may have to face the fact that her body will begin to reject donor tissue. As her doctor, I have to be prepared for this, although we hope that this day never comes,”she added.
Dinoir is more optimistic about the future: “I tell myself that everything will be okay. If I take the pills, everything will be fine."
However, prone to bouts of depression, she says that she constantly thinks of the dead woman, whose face is now hers. Immediately after the operation, she surfed the Internet in search of information about her anonymous donor, whose identity French law would never let her know.
“When I'm in a bad mood or depression, I look at myself in the mirror and think about her. And I tell myself that I shouldn't give up. She gave me hope and a new life,”finished Dinoir.
At one point, Isabelle even wanted to find the relatives of the donor woman in order to thank them for what she calls a "magical donation."