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Patients meet face to face
23/12/2005 19:00 - (SA)
Lyon - The Frenchwoman who had the world's first face transplant last month met a man on Friday who made headlines himself nearly six years ago when he received the first double hand transplant.
The 38-year-old woman, who cannot be identified under French privacy laws, saw Denis Chatelier for an hour in her Lyon hospital room where she is recovering from the November 27 surgery that gave her a graft of a nose, chin and mouth from a brain-dead donor.
Looking good
"She looked in good shape... she is holding up well," said Chatelier, also a French citizen, after the closed-door meeting conducted under the supervision of a psychologist.
"I reassured her... I thought that she had a good operation," said the man who received two donor's hands in January 2000 by French transplant pioneer Jean-Michel Dubernard, who also oversaw the woman's high-risk face transplant.
Doctors said the woman had requested the meeting, but declined to give further details.
Lifetime medication
Chatelier, a municipal employee in western France, was in the eastern city of Lyon for a medical check-up on his hands, which require permanent immuno-suppressing medication so they will not be rejected by his body.
The woman who received the face transplant will also have to receive such treatment for the rest of her life.
The mother of two from Valenciennes in northern France, who lost both lips, her nose and chin after she was mauled by her dog in May, has become a worldwide media sensation for the medical feat that gave her a new face.
Her doctors have said she is eating normally and speaking better after the operation, and was expected to return home by the first week of January if no complications arise.
- AFP
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