Woman whose face was ripped off by a chimpanzee reveals what she looks like 16 years after face transplant (photos)

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.

In an attempt to fight off the animal, Herold hit it with a shovel and later stabbed it in the back with a large knife, however, her efforts didn’t deter the crazed animal.

After police arrived at the scene and shot the animal, Charla, severely disfigured from the attack, was rushed to the hospital, and left fighting for her life.

In 2011, she underwent a full face transplant at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and was fitted with glass eyes. 

Now, 16 years on from the attack, Charla said the face transplant ‘brought my life back’ as she expressed gratitude to the surgeons.

Speaking to 60 Minutes Australia, she said: ‘It’s a wonderful thing and words can’t express the gratitude, but I had this opportunity to live a better life.’

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.  

She said: ‘Life’s getting better, it is coming around slowly but yeah it’s getting better, It’s hard but it’s better.’ 

The US military funded the facial transplant in order to learn more about how it could help wounded veterans, and Nash has been subject to medical tests ever since. 

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.

Two years after the attack, the US military funded Nash’s face transplant. In return for footing her medical bills, she goes in for medical tests every few weeks.

She is subjected to MRIs and CT scans to determine how well her brain is sending signals to her new face. In addition, doctors examine how well the arteries are delivering blood to the transplant.

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.’

She hopes that one day she will be able to live at home instead of a facility, the nursing home.

‘I’ve never been a quitter,’ said Nash, who bought up her daughter, Briana, on her own.