Paris
(CNN)The recipient of the world's first
face transplant, Isabelle Dinoire, has died, according to French doctors.
A
statement released by Amiens Hospital, which performed the ground-breaking
procedure in November 2005, said Dinoire died on April 22, 2016 "following
a long illness."
She
was 49 years old.
The
delay in announcing her death was explained in the hospital statement.
"In accordance with the will of
her relatives, no obituary was published in the press in order to protect their
legitimate privacy at that painful time," the statement said.
Though
the hospital did not provide any details on the cause of Dinoire's death, French
media reported she succumbed to complications from her most recent operation.
Dinoire
suffered a rejection of the transplants last winter and lost part of the use of
her lips, Le Figaro, a prominent French newspaper reported Tuesday. The heavy
anti-rejection treatments she had to take contributed to the occurrence of two
cancers, according Le Figaro.
Surgeons
performed the operation when Dinoire was 38 years old, after her face was
mauled by her dog.
The
medical marvel created a wave of controversy at the time, with some questioning
the ethics of transplanting a face before attempting reconstructive surgery.
French
surgeons Dr. Jean-Michel Dubernard and Dr. Bernard Devauchelle decided to carry
out the operation to stitch on a nose, chin and mouth from a brain-dead donor,
and opted out of the more traditional reconstructive surgery route.
Dinoire
was given the lower part of a face taken from a woman who had committed
suicide.
A
year after having the procedure, Dinoire declared: "It may be someone
else's face, but when I look in the mirror, I see me."
The
surgery paved the way for other transplants involving varying combinations of
facial parts performed in six other countries, including the United States.
Credit:
CNN.com
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