Isabelle Dinoire, from Valenciennes, northern France, was the recipient of ground breaking face transplant surgery in November 2005 after her face was badly mauled by her pet Labrador.

Isabelle Dinoire BeforeIsabelle Dinoire After

But three years on from that momentous occasion she admits to an uncertainty concerning whose face she sees when she looks in the mirror.

“Before the operation, I expected my new face would look like me but it turned out after the operation that it was half me and half her(the donor).” She told French reporter Vanessa Pontet, adding that even three years on she is still having trouble coming to terms with her new features.

“It takes an awful lot of time to get used to someone else’s face. It’s a peculiar type of transplant.”

Miss Dinoire’s psychological difficulties will be troubling British surgeons who have only just been given permission by the NHS board of ethics to carry out the world’s first ever full face transplant. Because face transplants are not a life saving operation the board of ethics has always been hesitant to grant permission for their availability.

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BreastsSwedish boffins have discovered that drinking coffee can have a serious effect on a woman’s breast measurements.

The scientists from Lund University in Sweden studied 300 women, recording details of their breast dimensions and coffee intake. The alarming results showed that drinking as little as three cups of coffee a day could shrink boobs, and the risks increased the more coffee consumed.

“Drinking coffee can have a major effect on breast size,” said Helena Jernstroem, top boffin at Lund University in Sweden.

“Coffee-drinking women do not have to worry their breasts will shrink to nothing overnight. They will get smaller, but the breasts aren’t just going to disappear. However, anyone who thinks they can tell which women are coffee drinkers just from their bra measurements will be disappointed. The problem is that there are two measures for a bra, the cup size and the girth, so you wouldn’t be able to tell.”

Although this all sounds like bad news for breast lovers, the good news is drinking coffee helps reduce the risk of breast cancer. They may be smaller, but at least they’re longer lasting.

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Gila MonsterDrugs derived from the toxic saliva of the venomous Gila Monster have been used for some time now to treat diabetics, but studies have revealed that the “lizard spit” also helps patients to lose weight.

Hormone’s found in Gila Monster saliva are used in the drug Byetta to help people suffering from diabetes to control their blood sugar levels. The Gila Monster is one of only two species of venomous lizard that exist in the world today. It produces a neurotoxin from the saliva glands in it’s lower jaw, but unlike a snake who has fangs the Gila Monster administers it’s poison by chewing the flesh. Fortunately the handsome little devils are quite sloth like and don’t attack people often. The venom is believed to be solely for self defence and not for hunting, the lizard eats mostly stolen eggs.

A brand new study starting this month is hoping to discover exactly how the hormones from the lizard’s saliva is causing patients taking the drug Byetta to lose weight.



Patricia FloresA 19 year old girl in Peru has been admitted to hospital because her breasts have begun to grow at an abnormal and alarming rate.

Patricia Flores Gil became pregnant with her first child and her breasts began to grow as her mammary glands produced milk. However five months later her boobs were still getting larger and larger. Her family raised the money to send Patricia to hospital to find out what was happening to her.

Doctors at the Las Mercedes Hospital in Chiclayo immediately ruled out the chances of a tumour, and kept Patricia in hospital for further tests. Last week Patricia gave birth to a daughter but had to remain in hospital until doctors got to the cause of her monster breasts.

Doctors decided that the only possible treatment for Patricia’s condition is to cut the mammary glands to stop them from producing milk. They reassured Patricia that in time her breasts will shrink back to their normal size.

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Conjoined TwinsA four month old baby has died moments after a marathon operation to separate her from her twin sister.

The twins from Bangladesh underwent complicated surgery by a team of more than 50 doctors and nurses in an effort to give them both normal lives. Barsha and Banya were joined at the chest and stomach, the operation lasted seven hours but Barsha wasn’t strong enough to survive.

“In these cases one of the twins is always stronger than the other and in this case Barsha was not the strong one and has died,” reported paediatric surgeon Shafiqul Haq.

“The condition of the other twin is good. She has a little bit of fever. It is too early to determine whether the surviving twin is risk-free.”

Bangladesh has a bad record for separating conjoined twins, in the past four years there have been three previous attempts to separate conjoined twins and all but one child has died.

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African AlbinoTanzania police have reported that yet another albino has been murdered in the country to harvest his body parts, that makes the total 26 in less than a year.

Jovin Majaliwa lived in a remote part of Tanzania with his albino wife and children, two of which are also albino. On Thursday night after dark a gang of unidentified assailants barged into the Majaliwa home and attacked Jovin and his wife.

Jovin Majaliwa died from his injuries when the gang hacked off his right foot and genitals with machetes and knives. His wife was also injured in the attack but fortunately survived and is being treated in hospital.

Police are now looking after the Majaliwa’s two albino children as their safety is in doubt.

The Morningstarr* reported in June the increasing number of attacks on albinos in Tanzania due to witch doctors requesting albino body parts to form spells to make people rich. The albinos are known as “sope”, which means “lucky”, but as one albino living in Tanzania pointed out they aren’t very lucky at all.

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24 year old Wang Cheng from Zhiangsu in China has suffered from the terrible affliction of elephantiasis since she was just six years old.

She is unable to work, or even wear trousers due to the horribly painful condition. She has suffered for most of her life and has not left her home since she graduated from high school. Her father is paralysed due to a stroke and her mother is unemployed.

Her suffering may be about to end though as a Taiwanese specialist has agreed to treat Wang for free. Dr Hsu Wen-hsien has agreed to operate on the poor girl to remove lymphatic tissue in her legs and alleviate the pain caused by the swelling.

Wang ChengWang Cheng

“I’ve never seen such an extreme case in more than 30 years’ experience” said Dr Wen-hsien.

“In the past cases, none of the patients have had two legs swelling to this size,” he continued.

Wang was taken from China to Taiwan to meet Dr Wen-hsien by Taiwanese Buddhist group Fo Kuang Shan. Chinese doctors had been unable to help Wang and she had been passed from one Chinese hospital to the next without any progress.

Dr Wen-hsien has performed almost 50 similar operations, 37 fully successfully. He is confident he can reduce the swelling in Wang’s legs by up to 50%.

The doctor believes that the condition is being caused by an obstruction in the veins which led to blood flowing to the lymphatic vessels and culminating with the swelling.

Fo Kuang Shan are kindly paying for all of Wang’s non-medical costs, and the expensive surgery is being performed free by the hospital.

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A four year old girl in Hicksville, NY has deafened her mother in one ear just by giving her a kiss.

The unnamed woman was given what is described as a “long sucking kiss” in her ear by her daughter.

“I couldn’t push her away. I was almost frozen. When she stopped, and the kiss ended, I realized I had no hearing in that ear. Nothing,” The woman told doctors.

“I got very upset and yelled for my husband, ‘I can’t hear out of this ear! I can’t hear!,’”

After months of getting nowhere the woman’s doctor finally transferred her to hearing expert Professor Levi Reiter, Chair of Audiology at Hofstra University.

Reiter discovered that the suction power from the child’s “long sucking kiss” had pulled the woman’s eardrum down the ear canal and torn the tiny ligaments and nerves that connect the eardrum to the ear.

The woman may regain her hearing over time as the damage heals.

Reiter is to publish his findings in the National Hearing Journal, and hopes to warn the public that kissing ears, particularly those of young and newborn children, is potentially very dangerous.

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A baby born in Hejian city in central China’s Henan province has a second penis in the centre of it’s back.

Baby Born With A Penis On It's Back

The boy was rushed to Tianjin Childrens’ Hospital on May 27 for surgery to remove the extra organ.

Doctor’s spent over three hours removing the extra penis, and the boy is said to be perfectly normal now.

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African AlbinoBeing an albino in sub-Saharan Africa is already bad enough, due to lack of resources and being over exposed to the blistering sun most sub-Saharan albinos die from skin cancer before they reach 30. On top of this they are usually shunned from society, living as outcasts begging for food or money to survive.

But things have recently become even worse for the albino community in Africa. Many people across Africa believe albinos have magical powers, or are “lucky”. Albinos are referred to as “sope”, which means “something magical inhabited by powerful evil spirits”. Because of this belief, African witch doctors have been recommending sexual intercourse with an albino as a cure for HIV for some time now. This has seen a dramatic increase in the number of albino women being raped in south-east Africa.

But the horror doesn’t end there, now albino skin and body parts are becoming a valuable commodity. In Tanzania alone there have been at least nineteen albino people, including children, killed and mutilated in the past year.

The victims are usually hacked to death with machetes, often skinned and usually with eyes, tongues and breasts gouged out.

One victim, Vumilia Makoye aged just 17, was at home eating supper with her family when two men approached their home carrying machetes. The family tried to barricade the door, but the men managed to force entry and pounced on Vumilia. As her family watched helplessly the two men sawed Vumilia’s legs off above the knee and ran off with them. Vumilia bled to death.

Al-Shaymaa Kwegyir, Tanzania’s new albino member of parliament, said, “People think we’re lucky. That’s why they’re killing us. But we’re not lucky.”

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