'People tell me I’m beautiful and nobody ever told me that before': Chimp attack victim Charla Nash shows off new face six months after transplant

A woman whose face and hands were ripped off in a horrifying attack by a pet chimpanzee has showed the incredible results of her face transplant surgery.

Charla Nash, a 56-year-old single mother from Stamford, Connecticut, nearly died after the mauling two years ago.

She had tried to catch her boss' pet chimp Travis after he escaped – but the 14-year-old male ape turned on her and tore off her hands, nose, lips and eyelids.



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Recovery: Charla Nash, who was mauled by her friend's pet chimpanzee in February 2009, shows the incredible results of her face transplant surgery. Surgeons spent 20 hours re-building her features six months ago

Remarkable: Ms Nash before the attack, left, and three months after she underwent a face transplant, right



Six months ago, Ms Nash underwent a 20-hour operation which left her with a new face, prosthetic eyes and new hands.

Although a serious infection meant the hands had to be removed, she can now smell again, eat solid food – and says her new face ’has really given me a life back’.

‘I’ve had people tell me I’m beautiful and nobody ever told me I was beautiful before,’ she told the Today show.

Of the family who donated the face of their loved one, she said: ‘Words can’t even say enough. It’s really given me a life back. It’s such a wonderful thing. I cannot thank them enough.'

Tough: Speaking on the Today show, Ms Nash described her disappointment that doctors had to remove her hands after a successful hand transplant. She had contracted an infection which affected her circulation

On the mend: Ms Nash's daughter Brianna helps her mother eat her breakfast. Ms Nash is now able to eat solid foods for the first time since the attack and has confessed to a love of junk food She told Today that a little girl approached her on the first day she went out without a veil and said hello. 'That didn't happen before,' she said. 'It was nice. The little girl was saying 'Hi' to me...I'm not scaring anybody.'

Ms Nash’s doctors say her face will not resemble the donor’s and will instead mould to her own bone structure. ‘What we have seen is that the face almost blends in and becomes the patient’s own to the point that a regular person passing by will not even be able to tell,’ Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, told the Today Show. Gruelling: More than 30 physicians, nurses, anaesthesiologists and residents at Brigham and Women's Hospital Department of Plastic Surgery re-built the face of Charla Nash six months ago

Horrific injuries: Charla Nash hid her face under a veil after the attack, in which the chimp ripped off her nose, eyelids and lips

Ms Nash’s daughter Brianna added: ‘I’m still waiting for some of the underlying bone structure to take some shape on her cheeks – but it’s my mom.’

WHAT SURGEONS DID

Doctors matched Charla with a potential donor by screening proteins in the skin

They cut and peeled away the donor's face and underlying structure, including muscle, skin and nerves for sensation

They prepped Charla by removing damaged tissue

Using tiny needles, they sewed together nerves, muscles and blood vessels between the donor's and Charla's faces



The face was then positioned correctly over the skull and sewn into place

For 20 hours, 14 surgeons worked simultaneously

Charla will not look like the donor as the skin will mould to her bone structure

Ms Nash, who has been left with one thumb, said she does not know what she looks like as she is unable to feel all of her features

She said: ‘I can touch it. I can’t really feel anything, but I know I’m touching my skin and cheek.

‘I can’t feel the middle of my face – the top lip and the nose. I lost all the nerves there. So it’s going to be a long time before everything can work.’

Now she can eat solid food again, she admitted she had developed a love of junk food, French fries with Parmesan Cheese and IHOP breakfasts.

She also described her disappointment on finding out that her hands had been removed after contracting pneumonia, which affected her circulation.



'I was disappointed that I had them and they're gone again,' she said. 'But I'm hoping for in the future, that it can be done again.'

Healing will continue over the next year, and Ms Nash hopes she will be given new hands so she can get a seeing eye dog.

She remains philosophical about the attack and positive about the future.

‘I know I can’t go back and change what happen, but I can go forward and think about helping with the future of these animals and people’s safety. And I’m glad I’m still here.’

She is now encouraging legislation to prohibit wild animals as pets. Travis belonged to her friend, Sandra Herold, and the attack prompted officials to make change the law regarding exotic animals in Connecticut.

‘I lived in Connecticut and there were restrictions against these animals, but they didn’t enforce them,’ she said.

Skilled: Surgeons remove the face from the donor (left) including all underlying nerves and muscles (right)



Precision: They placed the donor's face on Ms Nash and connected each nerve, muscle and blood vessel

‘I know I cannot go back and change what happened, but I can go forward and think about helping with, you know, the future of these animals and people’s safety.’

A team of more than 30 surgeons, nurses and anaesthetists at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, led by Dr Bohdan Pomanhac, painstakingly rebuilt her face earlier this year.

They took the donor's skin, underlying muscle, nerves and upper palate and transplanted the whole face on to Ms Nash's skull.

Terrible attack: Travis, the 200lb chimpanzee who mauled Charla Nash in 2009. He was later shot

She had hidden her face under a veil for two years, but bravely revealed the disfigured features in an interview with Oprah Winfrey just a few months after the attack.



At the time she said: 'I wear (the veil) so I don't scare people. Sometimes other people might insult you, so I figure maybe it's easier if I just walk around covered up.'

The chimp was later shot by police. At the time its owner speculated the pet was trying to protect her and didn't recognise Ms Nash because she had changed her hairstyle.

Miss Herold died of an aneurysm last year. Miss Nash's family are suing her estate for $50million and wants to sue the state for $150million, saying officials failed to prevent the attack.

The double transplant was the first of its kind in the U.S., and has only been performed once before in the world, in France.

It was paid for by the Department of Defense, through a contract it gave Brigham and Women's Hospital in 2009 to cover the cost of face transplants for veterans and some civilians, hospital officials said.

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