U.S. woman mauled by chimp praised for new face

Meredith Vieira couldn’t stop staring at Charla Nash’s face.


That’s nothing new for Nash – nearly three years after a horrific chimp attack literally tore her face off, she’s gotten used to people staring. What was new was the reason for the attention.
“Wow. You really look fantastic,” Vieira told Nash. “I’m just—I— I apologize. I'm looking at your face and I am in awe.”
After a full face transplant, Nash has begun venturing out into public again, no longer worried her severely disfigured face would frighten people. On Monday, she revealed that new face in an exclusive interview on TODAY.


As the donor face has begun molding to Nash’s underlying bone structure, Nash has begun returning to more of her normal life. She particularly remembered one day she went to the store with her brother.
While shopping they ran into a little girl, who said hello to Nash.
“That didn't happen before,” Nash told Vieira. “It was nice. The little girl was saying hi to me. I looked like I’ve got eyes and everything. …I’m not scaring anybody.


Nash said she was cheered by a simple "hello" from a child while she was shopping recently.
"That didn't happen before," she said. "It was nice. The little girl was saying 'Hi' to me. … I'm not scaring anybody."
Nash was attacked in 2009 by a neighbor's 200-pound pet chimpanzee, which went berserk after its owner asked Nash to help lure it back into her house in Connecticut. The animal ripped off Nash's nose, lips, eyelids and hands before being shot to death by police. Nash was blinded in the attack.
She underwent a face and double hand transplant in May, but the hands failed to thrive because of complications and were removed. Doctors have told her she might be able to have a transplant in a year.
Nash is again able to chew food and have a sense of smell. She said she can smell the perfumes of nurses she works with.
"They all smell pretty," she said.
Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, director of plastic surgery transplantation at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, says Nash's face will continue to heal over the coming year.
"What we have seen is that the face almost blends in and becomes the patient's own, to the point that I think that a regular person passing by will not be even able to tell," he told the "Today" show.
Nash's daughter, Briana, believes her mother is back.
"She looks similar," she said. "I'm still waiting for the underlying bone structure to take some shape on her cheeks. But it's my mom.