Jacky

Left auricular prosthesis, clipped onto a gold bar since 1985

‘In 1982, I was driving along in my car when I fell asleep and went into a tree. I was ejected from the car and dragged along the road on my left side for 75m. As a consequence, I had multiple skin grafts on my arms, shoulders and especially the left side of my face and my ear was torn off. I wore my hair long to hide the scars.

In 1985, I met Anne-Marie Riedinger who made my first auricular prosthesis, which was fixed with adhesive at that time. I immediately felt more confident. But I could only wear it for a few days before I had to stick it back on again. It came off in the swimming pool, and when I played handball it would fall off when I started sweating. And the prosthesis would rapidly start to turn yellowish. We made a new one every 2 years and my skin reacted to the adhesive.

In 1993, I volunteered for the very first implant fitting in Strasbourg by Dr Herman in the ENT department and the cervical-facial surgical department of Professor Conraux. I had the very first prosthesis clipped onto a gold bar with a sideboard to hide the skin grafts. It was real joy to be able to swim again without being worried that it would fall off - except when diving. I took up handball again and I go motorcycling.”