“The recipient of the world’s first face transplant may have suffered her injuries when her dog tried to rouse her after she had taken a suicidal drug overdose …
The 38-year-old divorcee is said to have lost consciousness before the family labrador managed to wake her. It was later destroyed and the woman has since acquired a new dog.Her 17-year-old daughter said: ‘We don’t know what happened with the dog, whether it bit or clawed her, but it managed to pull her awake. In a way, it was lucky for her that the dog was there.’
Yesterday, doctors gave more details about the revolutionary treatment used to transplant a section of nose, lips and chin from a brain-dead donor.
The transplant surgeon Jean-Michel Dubernard acknowledged that he had initial reservations in the planning stages of the surgery but said that when he saw the extent of the woman’s disfigurement, he ‘no longer hesitated for a second’.”
[Update: Baltimore Sun on ethics arguments about face transplantation from AJOB]