Woman whose face was ripped off by a chimpanzee reveals what she looks like 16 years after face transplant
A woman whose face was ripped off by a chimpanzee has revealed what she looks like 16 years after undergoing a life-changing face transplant.
In February 2009, Charla Nash, now 71, was attacked by her friend Sandra Herold’s chimpanzee, Travis, at her home in Connecticut, who ripped off her nose, lips, eyelids, and hands.
Herold struck the animal with a shovel and then stabbed it in the rear with a big knife to try to ward it off, but the insane animal seemed unfazed.
Charla, who was badly mutilated in the attack, was taken to the hospital and left fighting for her life after police arrived on the scene and shot the animal.
In 2011, she underwent a full face transplant at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and was fitted with glass eyes.
Now, sixteen years after the attack, Charla thanked the surgeons and said the face transplant “brought my life back.”
‘It’s a fantastic thing and words may describe the thankfulness, but I had this opportunity to live a better life,’ she said in an interview with 60 Minutes Australia.
Charla said she is slowly getting feeling back in her face and has started to eat solid food again. She added: ‘The nose and the upper lip I can’t feel yet, but little by little it’s coming back, I can feel my cheek and forehead, so it’s getting there.
‘I was only drinking everything from through a straw and my goal is to be able to eat again.’ Charlie, who lives in an assisted care centre, undergoes daily rehabilitation and speech therapy.
“Life is improving; it’s coming around gradually, but it’s getting better. It’s difficult, but it’s better,” she added.
Nash has been undergoing medical testing ever since the US military paid for the facial transplant to find out more about how it might benefit injured troops.
While her body rejected transplants on her hands, the facial surgery was successful. Nash is blind after she had her eyes removed due to a disease transmitted by the chimp, who had worked as an actor and appeared in commercials for Old Navy and Coca-Cola.
The military is also interested in monitoring the scarring around the mouth and how well her eyelids work.
In 2014, Charla revealed that she had no independence since the attack and that people were afraid to come near her.
‘Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot I can do,’ she told the Boston Herald. ‘I’ve lost so much independence… I could change my own truck tire, and now I can’t even feed myself.’
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