LONDON – The French woman who received the world’s first partial face transplant says she was amazed to see her new face in the mirror and has no regrets about the operation, a newspaper reported Saturday.
The patient, whose identity has not been disclosed, underwent the groundbreaking operation in November, in which doctors grafted a nose, chin and lips from a brain-dead donor onto her face. The woman was disfigured earlier this year when mauled by her dog.
“When I looked at my new face, I knew straight away that it was me,” Britain’s Daily Mail quoted the 38-year-old patient as saying. “It was amazing to see a nose and mouth on my face again.”
The woman said she still had no feeling in her face, as the nerves were not yet working correctly, the Daily Mail reported. Doctors hoped feeling would return in less than a year, she said.
The patient said she took a walk inside the hospital, but was “very scared of leaving” and being recognized as the face transplant recipient, the paper said.
“I just want to live a normal life without being stared at all the time,” she said. “It’s still too early to think about the future. But I regret nothing. if I was asked again, I would do it again.”
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