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Face transplant woman smoking
23/01/2006 21:50 - (SA)
Lyon - The Frenchwoman who received the world's first partial face transplant can now move her upper lip, is chain-smoking, and will make an appearance at a news conference in the near future, her doctors said on Monday.
"She is doing just fine .... I am struck by the progress she is making," Bernard Devauchelle, who led November's operation, told Le Parisien newspaper.
"She can speak better every day though she still stumbles over the letters 'p', 'b' and 'm'. Labials are harder for her because she can move her upper lip now but not the lower one.
"She is eating normally and is starting to drink without spilling," he said.
The 38-year-old woman from Valenciennes in northern France, who was disfigured by a dog bite, was given a new nose, lips and chin from a brain-dead donor in the groundbreaking operation on November 27. 'Fag after fag'
She remains in hospital in Amiens, where Devauchelle said she spends her time knitting, exercising on a bicycle-machine and smoking.
"She smokes fag after fag. It's not perhaps the best thing she could be doing - but it's her choice," the doctor said.
"Contrary to what some have said, she has accepted her new face very readily and has no desire to get rid of it. "It doesn't in the least make her look like she's got a dead woman's face!" he said.
Devauchelle confirmed reports that the woman had a slight relapse in mid-December when she appeared to reject the transplanted tissue, but he said the problem had been overcome.
"The transplanted skin began to change in colour, going to dark pink from the usual pale pink .... We decided to increase the dosage of immunosuppressants which luckily meant that we ended the problem," he said.
- SAPA
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