The French Face Transplant Redux
I suppose you've heard about the world's first partial face transplant by now. There's just a little bit of a scandal going on. The doctor who performed the transplant denies that his patient tried to commit suicide before having a large chuck of her face mauled off by her pet Labrador Retriever in circumstances that are unclear at this point. Umm, bad dog? Sorry for the morbid curiosity but what could make her dog do that sort of thing?
~shrugs~
It gets even more gruesome. It turns out the donor of the facial tissue in question hanged herself hours before the groundbreaking operation. The doctor is calling the media coverage odious (and I guess he would include me in that description now, as well). It also appears the patient had been keeping a low profile after being mauled by the Labrador.
Interesting bit:
One of the woman's daughters reportedly told French media that the dog had tried to wake her mother and had had no intention of harming her - a scenario that a local dog trainer said was possible.
"The dog undoubtedly wanted to re-establish contact with (its) master, in any way he could," said Pascal Duplouy, who had no contact with the animal in question.
"It's true that when a dog is in a state of panic, it can scratch and scratch and scratch his master's face, to try to wake her, without realizing the harm it's doing," Duplouy said.
I thought I was just going to be writing about a straight medical breakthrough when Googling up the research for this entry but my morbid curiosity just can't stay away from the weird circumstances surrounding this operation. It's become a weird news piece, as well.
A few thoughts:
1) I'm just guessing but I'd have to say that the woman probably tried to commit suicide (pills, most likely) and her Labrador sensed something was wrong. This caused the poor dog to try to wake her up by latching onto her face and shaking her vigorously. And now she wears a chunk of face from a more successful suicide victim. What are the odds?
2) The patient is taking anti-rejection drugs, of course. Doctors advice: Don't miss a single dose of the anti-rejection medicine. It could be very embarrassing if she was eating lunch at some cafe and her face just sort of fell off while she was munching on a croissant. Just ask Michael Jackson. He'll tell ya' all about that kind of thing.
3) I should have been a coroner or something. Problem is, I don't like to touch dead tissue unless I bought it at the meat department in Wally World.
Okay. I'm just a little bit on the morbid side of things today. Go ahead and slap me. You know you want to. Like you never stared at a traffic accident on the freeway or anything like that.
~shrugs~
It gets even more gruesome. It turns out the donor of the facial tissue in question hanged herself hours before the groundbreaking operation. The doctor is calling the media coverage odious (and I guess he would include me in that description now, as well). It also appears the patient had been keeping a low profile after being mauled by the Labrador.
Interesting bit:
One of the woman's daughters reportedly told French media that the dog had tried to wake her mother and had had no intention of harming her - a scenario that a local dog trainer said was possible.
"The dog undoubtedly wanted to re-establish contact with (its) master, in any way he could," said Pascal Duplouy, who had no contact with the animal in question.
"It's true that when a dog is in a state of panic, it can scratch and scratch and scratch his master's face, to try to wake her, without realizing the harm it's doing," Duplouy said.
I thought I was just going to be writing about a straight medical breakthrough when Googling up the research for this entry but my morbid curiosity just can't stay away from the weird circumstances surrounding this operation. It's become a weird news piece, as well.
A few thoughts:
1) I'm just guessing but I'd have to say that the woman probably tried to commit suicide (pills, most likely) and her Labrador sensed something was wrong. This caused the poor dog to try to wake her up by latching onto her face and shaking her vigorously. And now she wears a chunk of face from a more successful suicide victim. What are the odds?
2) The patient is taking anti-rejection drugs, of course. Doctors advice: Don't miss a single dose of the anti-rejection medicine. It could be very embarrassing if she was eating lunch at some cafe and her face just sort of fell off while she was munching on a croissant. Just ask Michael Jackson. He'll tell ya' all about that kind of thing.
3) I should have been a coroner or something. Problem is, I don't like to touch dead tissue unless I bought it at the meat department in Wally World.
Okay. I'm just a little bit on the morbid side of things today. Go ahead and slap me. You know you want to. Like you never stared at a traffic accident on the freeway or anything like that.