BOSTON — A Connecticut woman mauled by a chimpanzee gone berserk has received a new face in the third such operation performed in the U.S. and is looking forward to going out in public again and eating hot dogs and pizza after months of pureed food.
Charla Nash, 57, underwent a full-face and double-hand transplant late last month, but the hands failed to thrive because of complications and were removed, Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, leader of the 30-member surgical team at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said Friday. Overall, her prospects are excellent, he said.
“It will certainly help her tremendously to feel human again,” Pomahac said.
In February 2009, she was attacked by a neighbor’s 200-pound pet chimpanzee, named Travis, which went berserk after its owner asked Nash to help lure it back into her Stamford, Conn., house. The animal ripped off Nash’s hands, nose, lips and eyelids before being shot and killed by police.
After the mauling, Nash’s eyes were gone and she had only a small opening instead of a mouth to take in pureed food. She could talk but was barely understandable.
More than two years later, Nash received skin, underlying muscles, blood vessels, nerves, a hard palate and teeth from a dead person whose identity was not released.
Over the next few months, she will develop more control over facial muscles and more feeling, letting her breathe through her nose and develop her sense of smell. She remains blind.
She did not appear at a hospital news conference Friday, and no photographs of her after the surgery were released.
Fighting back tears, her brother Steve Nash called the operation “miraculous.”
“We are confident Charla will gain her goal to regain her health and independence in the future,” he said.
