Didier

Left auricular epithesis, clipped onto a gold bar since 1987

“I was born with a total absence of an inner and outer ear on the left-hand side.

From 1971 to the mid-1980s; I underwent several attempts to reconstruct the inner and outer ear. At the end of the day, it was a total failure. After all those operations, I was left with a disappointing result visually, with scars and puffy skin - not exactly the height of beauty.

I met Anne-Marie Riedinger for the first time in 1987, following a proposal by Dr Hamann, an ENT surgeon at Necker Hospital in Paris, to carry out a new method of reconstructing the outer ear by using a prosthesis. I made up my mind to go ahead with it. Two operations were necessary to fit the implants and abutments and then the prosthesis could be fabricated.

As soon as I received my prosthesis, my life changed completely. I looked at myself in the mirror and saw a completely different person. I had been waiting for this person for a long time, during all those years spent in hospital, in the hope of becoming like everyone else and having two ears. I no longer have to hide my disability, I no longer dread people staring at me and making comments, or feel like I’m not normal.

Anne-Marie Riedinger is a craftswoman and an artist. Each prosthesis is unique in its precision. Just like a painter, she adds her personal touch, her signature. She doesn’t just replace a damaged, mutilated or inexistent part of the body, she brings something extra into the lives of her patients. Through her work she reassures her patients allowing them to be perceived as just an ordinary someone not a mutilated person damaged by life. If I hadn’t met Anne-Marie Riedinger, my life would certainly have taken a different turn. I owe her a lot and can’t thank her enough.”