Isabelle Dinoire was a French woman who was the first person to undergo a partial face transplant, after her pet dog severely injured her face while she was passed out from an overdose of sleeping pills in May 2005.
13 Facts About Isabelle Dinoire
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Isabelle Dinoire underwent a 15-hour operation in November 2005 in which surgeons transplanted the nose, lips and chin from a brain-dead donor at a hospital in Amiens.
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Isabelle Dinoire died at age 49 in April 2016, though her death was not announced until more than four months later.
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Isabelle Dinoire took a large number of sleeping pills and neither woke up nor felt any pain while the dog mutilated her face.
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Isabelle Dinoire's daughter reported that the family is sure that the dog, which was euthanized, mutilated Isabelle Dinoire while attempting to wake her.
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Isabelle Dinoire was "heartbroken" when Tania was euthanized and kept a picture of the dog by her hospital bed; she later adopted a different dog to aid in her recovery after surgery.
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Local French newspapers reported that Isabelle Dinoire's daughter said that her mother had attempted suicide.
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British newspaper The Sunday Times stated that Isabelle Dinoire had said in a telephone interview that she had tried to commit suicide.
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Isabelle Dinoire was given bone marrow cells to prevent rejection of the tissue.
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Exactly one year following the partial face transplant, Isabelle Dinoire stated she had the ability to smile again.
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Isabelle Dinoire had to take the drugs for the rest of her life.
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Isabelle Dinoire died of cancer at a French hospital in April 2016.
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Isabelle Dinoire's death was not announced until September 2016 to give her family privacy, according to hospital officials.