LILLE, France:The world’s first face transplant recipient, Frenchwoman Isabelle Dinoire, died in April “after a long illness,” a French hospital said Tuesday.
In 2005, at the age of 38, Dinoire received a graft comprising the nose, lips and chin of a brain-dead donor to replace parts of her face that had been mauled by her dog.
The hospital in Amiens, northern France, confirmed the death of “Mrs D., the first patient in the world to receive a face transplant in an operation carried out by Professor (Bernard) Devauchelle and his teams on November 27, 2005.”
The hospital said her death had been kept quiet to protect her family’s privacy.
Le Figaro newspaper reported that Dinoire’s body had rejected the transplant last year “and she had lost part of the use of her lips.”
The drugs that she had to take to prevent her body from rejecting the transplant left her susceptible to cancer, and two cancers had developed, the report said.
In a remarkable news conference in February 2006, just three months after the operation, the blonde, blue-eyed mother of two appeared before TV cameras wearing a black top and pink cardigan.
She appeared to be wearing thick makeup to disguise the scars of the procedure.
Her lips were heavy and inflexible, and she spoke with a pronounced lisp but was otherwise comprehensible.
She recounted how she had fainted after “taking medicines to forget” personal problems.
“When I woke up, I tried to light a cigarette and I couldn’t understand why it didn’t stay between my lips. Then I saw the pool of blood and the dog next to me,” she said.
“I went to look in the mirror and was horrified.”
But the ground-breaking operation gave her a new lease of life.
“Since my operation I have a face, like everyone... I will be able to resume a normal life,” the divorcee said.
The operation was led by Jean-Michel Dubernard, a world-renowned surgeon at Edouard Herriot hospital in the eastern city of Lyon, and Devauchelle, a professor of facial surgery.
Dubernard had performed the world’s first hand transplant in September 1998, followed by the first double hand and forearm transplant in January 2000.
The transplant team came under fire from within the French medical profession for releasing post-operation pictures of the patient.
Frenchwoman who received first face transplant dies
Frenchwoman who received first face transplant dies
Bangladesh sends record 750,000 workers to Saudi Arabia in 2025
- Latest data shows 16% surge of Bangladeshis going to the Kingdom compared to 2024
- Bangladesh authorities are working on sending more skilled workers to Saudi Arabia
DHAKA: Bangladesh sent over 750,000 workers to Saudi Arabia in 2025, marking the highest overseas deployment to a single country on record, its labor bureau said on Friday.
Around 3.5 million Bangladeshis live and work in Saudi Arabia, sending home more than $5 billion every year. They have been joining the Saudi labor market since the 1970s and are the largest expatriate group in the Kingdom.
Last year, Saudi Arabia retained its spot as the top destination for Bangladeshi workers, with more than two-thirds of over 1.1 million who went abroad in 2025 choosing the Kingdom.
“More than 750,000 Bangladeshi migrants went to Saudi Arabia last year,” Ashraf Hossain, additional director-general at the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training, told Arab News.
“So far, it’s the highest number for Bangladesh, in terms of sending migrants to Saudi Arabia or any other particular country in a single year.”
The latest data also showed a 16 percent increase from 2024, when about 628,000 went to the Kingdom for work, adding to the largest diaspora community outside Bangladesh.
Authorities have focused on sending more skilled workers to Saudi Arabia in recent years, after the Kingdom launched in 2023 its Skill Verification Program in Bangladesh, which aims to advance the professional competence of employees in the Saudi labor market.
Bangladesh has also increased the number of certification centers, allowing more candidates to be verified by Saudi authorities.
“Our focus is now on increasing safe, skilled and regular migration. Skilled manpower export to Saudi Arabia has increased in the last year … more than one-third of the migrants who went to Saudi Arabia did so under the Skill Verification Program by the Saudi agency Takamol,” Hossain said.
“Just three to four months ago, we had only been to certify 1,000 skilled workers per month. But now, we can conduct tests with 28 (Saudi-approved) centers across the country, which can certify around 60,000 skilled workforces (monthly) for the Kingdom’s labor market.”
On Thursday, the BMET began to provide training in mining, as Bangladesh aims to also start sending skilled workers for the sector in Saudi Arabia.
“There are huge demands for skilled mining workers in Saudi Arabia as it’s an oil-rich country,” Hossain said.
“We are … trying to produce truly skilled workers for the Saudi labor market.”
In October, Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh signed a new employment agreement, which enhances worker protection, wage payments, as well as welfare and health services.
It also opens more opportunities in construction and major Vision 2030 projects, which may create up to 300,000 new jobs for Bangladeshi workers in 2026.
