Transplant patients to meet

NEXT week, the world’s first double hand-transplant patient will meet the woman who just had the first partial face transplant in Lyon, France.

Denis Chatelier, who has lived six years with new hands, says he will offer encouragement that only a fellow transplant patient can give.

"I'm not a psychologist, I'm not a psychoanalyst," Chatelier said.

"But what I want to do is show her that later in life, she can be happy."

Today, the 39-year-old French father of five says his hands function at 80%. He can shave, drive, brush his teeth, write, dial a telephone, hold his children's hands, and feel sensations like pain and temperatures. He has only one hour of physical therapy a day. His life is nearly back to normal. It has been a long, tough path, though.

Beyond encouragement, Chatelier wants to warn the face transplant patient a 38-year-old French woman who, because of privacy laws, is identified in France only by her first name, Isabelle about the hardships ahead.

These include swarming media attention, stares, and a lifetime of potent anti-rejection drugs, which initially left Chatelier shaky, sweaty, dizzy and suffering from frequent stomach flu. The dose has been reduced but still leaves Chatelier vulnerable to illnesses.

Chatelier, a former house painter whose forearms were severed in 1996 by an exploding model rocket, underwent his 17-hour transplant surgery in January 2000.

Afterwards, he felt massive stress from the pressure of seeing himself everywhere in the media.

But the former marathon runner says he has an "iron willpower" so much so that he watched a video of his transplant surgery.

Beyond that, he had grown accustomed to stares and cruel remarks.