Isabelle Dinoire was 38 years old and lived in Valenciennes, in northern France. She was the mother of two children. In May 2005, her Labrador attacked her while she was unconscious from an overdose of sleeping pills.
She lost her nose, lips, and chin.
In Amiens, a surgeon named Bernard Devauchelle looked at her and understood there was no other way. His colleague Jean-Michel Dubernard, the man who had already performed the first hand transplant, put it this way: once he saw her disfigured face, nothing more needed to be said.
On 27 November 2005, over 15 hours, a team gave her the facial triangle from a brain-dead donor: nose, lips, and chin. No one in the world had ever done anything like it with the most difficult parts of the face.
Months later, she appeared before the press, her voice slurred and a scar in full view. She spoke of finally having a face like everyone else.
She lived another eleven years. In late 2015, her body began rejecting the graft, and she lost some use of her lips. According to Le Figaro, the medications that protected her ended up contributing to two cancers.
She died on 22 April 2016, aged 49. After her, dozens of people received a new face.
She opened the door. 🕊️
