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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Science
Fay Bound Alberti

Face transplants promised hope. Patients were put through the unthinkable

a women looking at a camera
Isabelle Dinoire, who received the world's first partial face transplant, addresses a news conference at Amiens hospital in Amiens, France on 6 February 2006. Photograph: Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images

In the early hours of 28 May 2005, Isabelle Dinoire woke up in a pool of blood. After fighting with her family the night before, she turned to alcohol and sleeping tablets “to forget”, she later said.

Reaching for a cigarette out of habit, she realized she couldn’t hold it between her lips. She understood something was wrong.

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