World's first face transplant patient dies at 49

(Image credit: Denis Charlet/AFP/Getty Images)

published 7 September 2016

Isabelle Dinoire, the French woman who received the world's first face transplant in 2005, died earlier this year, French doctors announced Tuesday.

Dinoire, 49, died on April 22 "following a long illness," Amiens Hospital said in a statement. The hospital said it waited to share the news because her family wanted time to grieve in private. French media is reporting she died of complications from her most recent operation. In the winter, Le Figaro reports, she suffered a rejection of the transplants, and she lost part of the use of her lips. Dinoire had to take several anti-rejection medications, and those also contributed to the occurrence of two cancers, CNN says.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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