Face Transplant Recipient’s New Face Came from Suicide

The story Isabelle Dinoire, who made headlines last week as the world’s first face transplant recipient, is perhaps the strangest I have heard in some time.

Donor for world’s first face transplant had hanged herself (Independent)

The donor whose features were used for the world’s first face transplant had committed suicide just hours before the operation.

As Isabelle Dinoire, 38, the recipient mauled by her pet labrador, was eating strawberries and chocolate yesterday following the operation, it emerged that the source of her new nose, lips and chin had hanged herself.

The woman, also 38, was brain dead when she arrived at a hospital in Lille last weekend, at which point preparations for the groundbreaking surgery began.

Her family gave consent for the operation.

Ms Dinoire was given her new start in a 15-hour procedure that ended on Monday morning. Speaking yesterday for the first time since the operation, she said: “I am very grateful to this woman. I thank her family for giving their permission for this operation. I thank them from the bottom of my heart.”

She had suffered her appalling injuries after she lost consciousness following an overdose of sleeping tablets, which she has now confirmed was an attempt on her own life. Her dog, which has been destroyed, is thought to have been trying to revive her.

Let’s recap, shall we?

    1. A woman tries to kill herself but fails.
    2. Her dog tries to save her and succeeds.
    3. Another woman tries to kill herself and succeeds.
    4. The second woman’s face is transplanted onto the first one.
    5. The dog is killed for his efforts.

What the hell?

via Ace

Related: Partial Face Transplant Done in France

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. spacemonkey says:

    Well, it WAS in France.

  2. shannon says:

    fools! the dog wasn’t trying to save her life, he was feeding on what he thought to be a dead body. having worked with dogs for years i can state with confidence that a dog chewing off most of the face of a human, including flesh and muscle, muscle! is NOT the act of a compassionate and loving pet attempting to revive his master. The dog ate most of her face and facial muscle, to think that the dog was trying to revive his beloved master is naive and blind to the horrible reality that actually occured. if a dog was to revive a human they lick, whine, bark, nudge, or tug, but certainly do not consume a portion of the human that they wish to revive. a dog knows if its doing physical damage or not, this is basic knowledge which all animals have. so the question is what happened to cause this extremely unnatural behavior in, what was assumed to be, a domesticated animal. was he abused whether by her or a previous owner? how long had she owned this dog? did he have a neurological disorder? rabies? distemper? i read a rumor that she may have cut her face accidentally after taking the sedatives. that opens up a whole new world of possible explainations for this unnatural mauling. rather than a pet dog eating off the face of what should have appeared to be a sleeping owner, or eating the face of what could have appeared to be a corpse, maybe the dog responded to the stimulant of blood. nonetheless, based on my years of experience with dogs in all types of situations, including many instances in which human blood was shed whether by bites, scratches, or cuts, it is still unnatural behavior for a pet dog to respond to blood in this manner. so, basically, what the hell was wrong with the dog and is it contagious?