A Frenchwoman who received the world's first partial face transplant has died, 11 years after the surgery that set the stage for dozens of other transplants worldwide.
The Amiens University Hospital in northern France announced Isabelle Dinoire's death on Tuesday.
It said she died aged 49 in April after a long illness, but her family wanted her death kept private. The hospital went public with the death after Le Figaro reported on it.
The hospital did not release any further details and it was not clear if her illness was related to the transplant.
Ms Dinoire was severely disfigured by her pet Labrador - and was given a new nose, chin and lips in 2005 by doctors Bernard Devauchelle and Jean-Michel Dubernard.
Medications that patients must take to prevent their bodies from rejecting the new organs can cause other illnesses and have severe side effects. Le Figaro said she had suffered two cancers linked to the transplant and lost partial use of her transplanted lips last year.
The operation changed Ms Dinoire's life and drew international attention. There have been nearly 40 face transplant surgeries around the world since 2005, including one last year in New York that was the...
