Charla Nash no longer feels like she has to hide in public.
Nearly three years after a horrifying attack by a friend’s chimpanzee and the ensuing surgery that gave her a new face, she tells NBC News’ Meredith Vieira that she feels free to go out in the world.
“Now it’s nice, like I’m going to the store with my brother, Steve, and a little girl was saying hi to me. And that didn’t happen before,” Nash told Vieira in an exclusive interview set to air Monday, Nov. 21 on TODAY.
Nash says her face is still numb after the grueling 20-hour surgery last May at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Six months after a face transplant gave her another chance at life, chimp attack victim Charla Nash grants an exclusive in...
She lost her sight — as well as her face and hands — in the attack so has no idea what her new face looks like.
"I've had people tell me I'm beautiful… and they were not telling me I was beautiful before," she said.
Nash, 58, of Stamford, Conn., was severely injured when she went to visit a friend, Sandra Herold, on Feb. 16, 2009. Nash had just gotten out of her car when Herold’s pet chimpanzee spotted her, went berserk and attacked. Nash was rushed to the hospital, where doctors were able to save her life, but not preserve her face or her hands.
Doctors transplanted not only a face but also gave her a double-hand transplant. Both hands failed to thrive as she struggled with pneumonia and circulation problems. They had to be removed.
"I found out later on that they — I had hands and they removed them," Charla said. "And it didn't really bother me because I was too sick to worry about that, you know? … And then later on, I was disappointed that, you know, I had them and they're gone again. But I'm hoping, you know, for in the future, that it can be done again."
