The world's first face transplant recipient is using her new lips to take up smoking again, which doctors fear could interfere with her healing and raise the risk of tissue rejection.
The woman suffered a tissue-rejection episode last month but is now doing well, her doctors said. But, they said she had resumed smoking, which besides being bad in general for health was especially a problem after surgery because it impaired circulation to tissues and could raise the risk of rejection.
[The Age, 19 Jan 2006]
I found this news item amusing. I think that the world's first face transplant patient is extremely lucky with the fact that she isn't having any major uncontrolled tissue rejection episodes after her operation. In spite of their overwhelming success, I bet his doctors are still pretty anxious on how long they can maintain immunosuppression, and then, here she is, taking up smoking as if that wouldn't screw up the delicate balance of tissue rejection and natural healing.
Some people do not know how to count their blessings.
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