New face for Chimp attack victim

Woman, mauled by chimpanzee, may not regain vision despite full face transplant.

Face transplant, Charla Nash

Charla Nash, the US woman whose face was ripped off by a chimpanzee, has received a full-face transplant -just the third of its kind.

Her family and lead transplant surgeon, Dr Bohdan Pomahac, speaking to reporters at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital said that while Nash was expected to regain control of her face, at this point doctors knew no way to “return her vision”.

Nash was blinded and had her face, nose, lips and eyelids torn off in February 2009 by a a friend’s 90kg chimpanzee named Travis.

At the time, Nash was trying to lure the chimp back into her friend’s home in Stamford, Connecticut.

Al Jazeera’s Mereana Hond reports.

Source: Al Jazeera