geoswan's Journal: How did that French gal lose her nose ?

That French gal, who had the face transplant? Most reports say she was mauled by a dog, and leave it at that.

But some press reports say that it was her own dog.
Some press reports say that she had taken some drugs, that knocked her out, and that she woke to find the dog chewing away.

I'd like to know what happened to the pooch.

Some press reports say her doctors are upset because she started smoking again. As a transplant receipient her immune system will be compromised by the anti-rejection drugs she takes. Smoking is far more dangerous for her.

What I suspect is that the pooch may have been the real hero of this story. You know how dogs wake people when there is smoke in the house? Some people's dogs can sense when they are going to have an epileptic seizure. I suspect that her dog may have sensed she was having a drug overdose. The dog may have saved her life.

Her return to smoking suggests she wasn't very responsible. There was probably pressure for her to have her dog killed. I hope she resisted that pressure.

Here is a picture.

Socialized medicine

[Concern]

I feel a great sympathy for the arguments for socialized medicine. Turning sick people away from the doctor's office seems impossible to justify with economics. But the idea of this woman smoking again... It's a pretty devastating indictment of the removal of personal responsibility from healthcare policy.

Maybe they saw her as a sacrificial Guinea Pig?

[geoswan]

Well, even with pay-as-you-go medicine, responsible medical professionals ration the limited supply of organs -- and wouldn't give another liver to someone who ruined the first one through drugs or alcohol, if their addictions were still out of control.

But her operation is very risky.

I am old enough to remember the first dozen or so heart transplants. Their life expectancy, post-op, was weeks, months, if they were lucky.

Her face was badly disfigured. But, if her body rejects her transplant, she will