For the first time since Charla Nash was brutally attacked by a chimp in Stamford in 2009, she revealed her new face on the Today Show on Thursday morning.
When Travis, Charla's friend's pet chimp, mauled her in February 2009, she lost her mouth, nose and hand. She was left permanently blind and doctors said it was a miracle she survived.
Doctors at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston performed a successful face transplant and Charla has made remarkable progress.
She is still too weak for an interview, the Today Show reported, but Charla is beginning to have feeling in her jaw and is regaining her sense of smell. She is also able to eat food with more substance.
She is able to show some expressions, her family said, and she is in intensive therapy.
Whether she gets full movement in her face will depend on how her therapy goes, family members said. But this is a time of hope.
“It’s just good to see the rapid progress … new hope has been sparked,” Charla’s daughter, Briana, said.
Doctors attempted a double hand transplant too, but something went wrong. Her family told the Today Show there will be another attempt.
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