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When he saw his new face for the first time, Desjardins thought he was looking at a picture of another man. “I didn’t think it was mine,” he told me through his wife. His tongue has atrophied. He hasn’t used it properly in seven years, so it’s smaller than yours or mine, because we don’t stop talking. With time, it’s going to regain volume. He’ll be able to swallow again, to speak.

Desjardins will not be at today’s press conference announcing the transplant. Borsuk said he wants to protect his patient as much as he can from intrusive media attention while he is still in rehab. He still sees Desjardins at the plastic surgery clinic at Maisonneuve-Rosemont every week. They’re checking his face for signs of rejection, taking tiny, 3.5 mm biopsies from his neck, punching through the “new” face with a tiny circular blade through the first two layers of skin. The hole where his trachea used to be has closed over.

When I first met Borsuk at his clinic, he told me Desjardins had just left and that I almost certainly passed him in the waiting room but didn’t notice anything unusual about the man.

When I finally met Desjardins last week at Maisonneuve-Rosemont, it was picture day. They were preparing him for the “after” photos to be released today. Senior plastic surgery resident Dr. Gabriel Beauchemin carefully trimmed Desjardins’ goatee with an electric shaver. He neatly clipped his mustache with tiny scissors. Desjardins breathed through his mouth. His wife lifted his red and black jersey shirt, and pushed a liquid-filled syringe into the feeding tube in his stomach, then tucked his shirt neatly back in. When Chollet entered the room, he and Desjardins embraced. “Smile,” Chollet said. “Close your mouth,” he said, gently pushing up on Desjardins’ chin.

As he left the examination room, Desjardins walked slowly into the outer waiting room. He turned to look for his wife, who was waiting to take him to the photographer.

People bustled around him. But there were no looks. No stares.

He was just another face in the crowd.