The woman's identity has not been revealed, and hospital officials won't say where she went. She and her family have declined requests for an interview.
She suffered a traumatic injury several years ago, the details of which doctors also won't reveal. But it left the woman with no nose, palate, or way to eat or breathe normally. In a 22-hour procedure, 80 percent of her face was replaced with bone, muscles, nerves, skin and blood vessels from another woman who had just died.
It was the fourth partial face transplant in the world, though the others were not as extensive.
The patient's recovery has been astonishing, Siemionow said. She shows no signs of rejecting her new face, is doing well on standard immune-suppressing drugs, and can breathe normally instead of through a hole in her windpipe.
A couple weeks ago, she ate pizza for the first time in years.
"She can actually feel the new face, and she does not feel the difference between her old face and her new face," Siemionow said.
"Before surgery, she couldn't smell at all," the surgeon said. Now, "she can recognize perfumes, she can eat and smell her hamburger ... she can drink her coffee from the cup."
Most surprising to doctors, who thought a transplanted face would never be able to do this: "She can wink her eye," Siemionow said.
Her face appears so normal, that she could probably even could go out in public and not be recognized as someone who had a face transplant, Siemionow said.
"The scars are nicely hidden because it's such a large transplant," she said. "We are really pleased with the outcome."
The woman must return a couple of times a week for follow-up care. She still needs restorative dental work. Doctors are working on a dental prosthesis to help fill the massive defect she suffered from her injury and to hold upper false teeth. Her lower teeth and lip are her own.
Already, the improvement in her quality of life is dramatic, and she is enjoying small pleasures "that we take for granted," Siemionow said.
"She enjoys cookies with her coffee," but could not drink from a cup before the transplant. "She loves hamburgers. For years, she could not eat chicken," and longed for its taste, the surgeon said.
The woman suffered emotionally from being called names and frightening children who ran away when they saw her, Siemionow said in a December news conference when the transplant was announced. Now, she has found inner happiness and confidence with the new face.
