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

Daily Mail​

18-06-2025

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.
During the attack, in an attempt to get the animal to stop, Herold hit him with a shovel and later stabbed him 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 hospital, left fighting for her life.
In 2011, she underwent a full face transplant at Brigham and Women's Hospital - the hospital's third ever procedure of its kind - 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.
Nash, a former barrel racer and horse jumper, said she has become increasingly patient because she has had to ask for help instead of doing everything herself.
But she chooses to look to the future and dreams of living on a farm in a small town once she is finished with her medical tests.
Travis the chimpanzee was raised in Connecticut by Sandra Herold, who treated the pet as if he were her son.
The 200-pound animal was thought to be domesticated since he would open doors, drink wine from a glass, eat at the dinner table, and dress himself. He even used the computer.
But in February 2009, Travis tried to escape by taking Herold's car keys and trying to use them on several cars.
Herold, who died in 2010, tried to lure Travis back into the house and gave him an iced tea laced with Xanax.
When Nash, who was a friend and employee of Herold's arrived at the house to help, the animal brutally attacked her.
Investigators suggested Travis may have mistook Nash, who was familiar with the chimp, as an intruder after she appeared with a new hairstyle.
During the attack, in an attempt to get the animal to stop, Herold hit him with a shovel and later stabbed him in the back with a large knife, however her efforts didn't deter the crazed animal
The Xanax, which is used for anxiety in humans, may have also fueled Travis' aggression.
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 has 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. In the nursing home.
'I've never been a quitter,' said Nash, who bought up her daughter, Briana, on her own.
She also hopes to use her story so that others don't have to face a similar ordeal, and is working with advocates on a video to encourage stronger laws restricting exotic animals.
She said she never felt at ease with Travis being locked up in her friend's home. The friend, Sandra Herold, died of an aneurism in 2010.
'I remember looking at him in his cage and feeling sorry for him,' she said. 'My thoughts were always, "How is she allowed this animal in her house? What if he gets loose someday and somebody gets hurt?" I know the animals are cute - but they're just not pets.'
After the attack, her family sought permission to sue Connecticut for $150 million for failing to seize the animal before the attack.
But the state claims commissioner died permission, saying that state law did not prohibit the private ownership of chimpanzees at the time of the attack.
She was given $4million in compensation by the estate of the animal's now-dead owner.
The settlement agreement filed in Stamford Probate Court called for Herold's estate to provide Nash with $3.4million in real estate, $331,000 in cash, $140,000 in machinery and equipment and $44,000 in vehicles.