Yahoo News Frenchman 'with three faces' Jérôme Hamon dies aged 49
Jérôme Hamon, the first man in the world to have undergone two face transplants – in 2010 and 2018 – and who thus had three different faces during his life, has died at the age of 49.
"He was exhausted at the end," Franck Zal, a close family friend and doctor of the Frenchman, told Brittany daily Le Télégramme.
"A week ago I was exchanging text messages with him."
Zal's company developed the technology that made the 2018 transplant possible.
"I want to testify to Jérôme's strength. I was always asking him how he managed to manage it all," he added.
Hamon, who passed away on 16 April, will be laid to rest on Friday in Saint-Thégonnec, Finistère, the region in Brittany where he is from.
Genetic disorder
The 2018 transplant was performed by a team lead by plastic surgeon Laurent Lantieri at the Georges-Pompidou European Hospital in Paris.
Lantieri had also performed Hamon's first total face transplant in 2010.
Hamon suffered from neurofibromatosis type 1 – also known as Von Recklinghausen disease – a genetic disorder that deformed his face.
The first transplant had been a success, as he recounted in the book T'as Vu le Monsieur ? (Have You Seen This Man?) published in April 2015.
Read more on RFI English
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