Posted on 01/18/2006 3:51:03 PM PST by wouldntbprudent
TUCSON, Ariz. - The world's first face transplant recipient is using her new lips to take up smoking again, which doctors fear could interfere with her healing and raise the risk of tissue rejection.
"It is a problem," Dr. Jean-Michel Dubernard, who led the team that performed the pioneering transplant in France on Nov. 27, acknowledged on Wednesday.
(Excerpt) Read more at comcast.net ...
"The woman whose face she received is a failed suicide"
The donor was a successful suicide. The recipient is widely rumored to have been a failed suicide.
Um, beg to differ, they euthanized her.
Uh oh!, next thing you know, she'll be doing housework...
"Um, beg to differ, they euthanized her."
She was brain dead at her own hands, kept alive only via machine. I'd say she succeeded.
She was badly disfigured. Med journos say she had no more feeling in her face below the bridge of her nose, severe nerve damage, and she couldn't smoke because she had no lips to put together. She couldn't drink though a straw either for the same reason. She was spoon fed mostly.
Very sad, indeed, when you put it that way.
Good grief. I hadn't heard the background with the dog and the suicides. What a sad, strange situation.
Same thing. Both can decide to quit.
Wow. Did I say Wow? Wow!!!
"As the doctors showed slides of her disfigured face before the transplant, Benoit Lengele, a Belgian specialist in facial injuries who was part of the transplant team, said that she told them that when she looked in the mirror, her face resembled that of a dead person."
This, from someone who is dogged by rumors that she tried, and failed, to kill herself. Not good.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/01/18/news/face.php
>>Same thing. Both can decide to quit<<
Not really. There is a true chemical dependency to nicotine as there is a true chemical dependency to cocaine.
One would not do a surgery this big on a cocaine addict, why consider it for a nicotine addict?
Habits are sometimes good. Eating right and exercise are good habits. The way you write your name or put your clothes into the closet are habits. There are not chemicals in your body that have become dependent on that. But putting nicotine into your body depleats that body of valuable nutrients. They should have worked on the addiction before doing the surgery. Or picked someone else.
The American doctors who have been preparing to do these surgeries are refusing to accept candidates who have attempted suicide. They are rightfully very concerned about the psychological health of prospective patients.
I say give the poor woman a break. After all she's been through, if she gets a little comfort from a cigarette I don't see why it's anyone's business. Is it really going to harm her lips?
However, people have the capacity to stop, at their own choosing, either a bad habit or a chemical habit.
I'm sure this woman quit smoking after her accident, because she didn't have a mouth.
The fact that she started doing it again means she is just stupid, not addicted. The amount of time that had gone by between her accident and now is significant, and certainly well past the nicotine withdrawal phase.
If she doesn't care, then I certainly don't.
My point, and I suppose it was rather off topic, is that people act like and addiction is some evil monster over which an individual has no control. "I can't help but get drunk everyday, I'm an alcoholic." Then one day, they choose to quit.
Continuing to submit to an addiction is a personal weakness, and it is no disease.
People with cancer can't just decide to not have cancer anymore. That is a disease.
Gosh, that's terrible. I am glad they were able to help her. Maybe after all of that and all she has been through both physically and mentally she should be allowed to smoke. Why not?
"Why not?"
Because it will decrease circulation and greatly increase the likelihood of rejection of the donoar facial tissue. I've got the creepy feeling that the word "suicide" is not merely part of this woman's past.
I never said it was a disease, I said addiction to nicotine is a risk factor.
In any other transplants, those risks are taken into account.
That is the point. Bad choice for the transplant.
Maybe. But the woman was a prime candidate, considering she had no face and had no other option. How many times would a patient like that come along for a doc wanting to do a face transplant?
As I said, I was getting off topic. Sorry.
Well, maybe this is her only pleasure. I'm not in her shoes so I can't say.
"Well, maybe this is her only pleasure."
A new vice would appear to be in order, unless she wants to risk the necrotization of her new face.
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