Six months ago, Charla Nash’s life changed when she received the face transplant she had been waiting for.
She was mauled by a chimpanzee in Stamford in February 2009 and lost her hands, eyes and nose in the attack. Doctors have called it a miracle that she survived and Nash has fought to regain a sense of normalcy.
She sat down with Meredith Viera for the “Today Show" to talk about the transplant and the segment aired on Monday morning.
Nash told Viera she is doing well, but has had a lot of setbacks.
The major setback was with the double hand transplant. Doctors gave Charla hands when they gave her a new face, but she became very sick when developed an infection and pneumonia, so they had to remove the hands.
“I felt disappointed that I had hands and they had to remove them,” Charla said.
But the face transplant has been life-changing.
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For instance, Nash can eat solid foods and spoke with enthusiasm about being able to go out and eat.
She has also regained her sense of smell.
She cannot see, but she has been fitted with prosthetic eyes.
“I’ve had people tell me I’m beautiful and nobody ever told me I was beautiful before,” Nash said.
The healing will continue over the next year and the face will conform to her own bone structure.
Nash has also taken up a political fight, encouraging legislation to prohibit wild animals as pets.
“I lived in Connecticut and there were restrictions against these animals, but they didn’t enforce them,” Nash said.
Travis was the pet of Nash’s friend, Sandra Herold and the attack prompted officials to make more changes in laws regarding exotic animals in Connecticut.
“Well, I know I cannot go back and change what happened, but I can go forward and think about helping with, you know, the future of these animals and people’s safety,” Nash said.
After years of fighting, Charla said she is glad she is still here and she is grateful for the face transplant.
Nash told Viera that a little girl came up to her on the first day she went out without a veil and the little girl said hello. That is when Nash knew she was not scaring people anymore, Viera said.
There is hope for another hand transplant and it could come in the next year. Nash said she hopes to get a seeing eye dog after that and she’ll be “good to go,” Viera said said.
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Here is the full interview:
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