charla nash after getting attacked by chimpanzee

#Charla nash after getting attacked by chimpanzee skin#
#Charla nash after getting attacked by chimpanzee full#

As independent a woman as I was, it’s very hard to live. She hopes someday she can live at home instead of in a facility. She is hoping to get new hands - a previous hand transplant attempt failed - to gain a little more independence. Nash’s hands were also badly mangled in the attack, leaving her with only her right thumb, and a stump below her left elbow.

I’m starting to get back into eating salads again. I can chew chicken, it’s a little softer. It’s still a little bit of work eating,” she said.Īs for her diet, she said, “I can’t chew steak. “They just made some bottom teeth for me recently. Her cheeks and lips move naturally as she speaks, and her speech is clear. The face otherwise looks as if it were her own. The lack of her own natural eyes is the most striking sign that something is amiss.

#Charla nash after getting attacked by chimpanzee skin#

To someone meeting her for the first time, the slight difference in skin tone where the donor face meets her neck is apparent. Nash no longer has much pain from the attack, but she is still adjusting to her new face and glass eyes.

#Charla nash after getting attacked by chimpanzee full#

In 2011, Nash was the third person to get a full face transplant at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She said she has largely made peace with what happened, but she remains frustrated by the severe limitations of her new life. Nash doesn’t remember the terrifying episode that almost claimed her life - when an aging chimpanzee kept by a friend in Stamford, Conn., attacked her in 2009. … I could change my own truck tire, and now I can’t even feed myself.” “Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot I can do,” Nash, 60, told the Herald before a checkup at Brigham and Women’s Hospital yesterday. Blind and still missing her hands, Nash lives quietly in a Massachusetts nursing home, trying to regain the other thing she lost in that brutal attack - her independence. Today, the media spotlight, the Oprah appearance, the flood of mail are all over. The world's first full face transplant was completed in Spain in 2010.Charla Nash was national news four years ago after a friend’s chimpanzee mauled her so badly she needed a new face. There, he is continuing facial muscle rehabilitation and resuming his normal life. Prior to the transplant, she decided not to attend her only daughter's high school graduation fearing she would distract from the students' day.īrigham and Women's, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, successfully performed the two previous full face transplants earlier this year.ĭallas Wiens, the 26-year-old first full face transplant recipient in the United States, headed home to Texas last month to be with his young daughter. On a diet of pureed food since the mauling, she is looking forward to a hot dog and pizza from her favourite spots, said her brother, Steve Nash.ĭoctors expect Nash to enjoy a more normal social life post-surgery. Eventually, she will be able to smile, express her emotions and eat normally, they said. Doctors said they were optimistic another hand transplant could be attempted if a future donor is identified.Īs she recovers, doctors said they expect Ms Nash to regain her sense of smell as well as sensation in her face. Ms Nash retained the use of the thumb on her right hand, which was intact after the attack. The hospital said the double hand transplant was successful, but the hands did not thrive after complications from pneumonia and have since been removed.

Working for more than 20 hours, the team replaced Ms Nash's nose, lips, facial skin, muscles of facial animation and nerves.Īs part of the surgery, Ms Nash also received teeth and palate from the anonymous donor. Ms Nash's face was rebuilt last month by a medical team of more than 30 physicians, nurses, anesthesiologists and residents in a challenging surgical procedure made more complex by a double hand transplant.

To us, Charla is a courageous, strong person who inspired the team to do everything possible using our collective expertise to restore her quality of life,' said Dr Bohdan Pomahac, who led the surgical team. 'To us, she's not a woman who was mauled by the chimpanzee. The animal was eventually shot and killed by police. She lost her hands, lips, nose and eyes, leaving her blind and disfigured after the attack. A United States woman mauled by a chimpanzee in 2009 has received a full face transplant, the third surgery of its kind performed in the country, Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital said.Ĭharla Nash, 57, was hurt after a friend's 90 kilogram pet chimpanzee Travis went on a rampage.