Doc: It Will Take Time to Know Extent of Care

A full team of doctors is treating Charla Nash after a chimpanzee mauled her in Stamford, and it will be some time before the medical team knows exactly what her care will entail.

Nash remains in stable but critical condition after being mauled by a 200-pound chimpanzee in Stamford this week. Her injuries were so traumatic that emergency crews that rushed to the scene of the attack could not immediately tell her gender.   

It will be a long road for the 55-year-old Stamford woman.

“She has suffered severe trauma to her face, scalp and hands,” Daniel Alam, section head of aesthetic and reconstructive surgery at the Cleveland Clinic, said Friday.

Her medical team consists of experts in facial plastic surgery, plastic surgery, infectious diseases, ophthalmology, orthopedics, social work, intensive care, nursing, critical transport and more.

“It will be several days before we can determine the full extent of her injuries, therefore it will take some time before we can determine what will be the next steps in her care,” he said.

Nash had been at Stamford Hospital for treatment after being mauled by Travis, a 14-year-old domesticated chimpanzee owned by her friend, Sandra Herold of Stamford, Monday.

Thursday she and her family were transported by private jet to the Cleveland Clinic.

"At this time, the family wishes to maintain their privacy. They are deeply thankful to the medical teams at both hospitals and to the community for all of the support they have and continue to receive,” Alam said.

Police shot and killed the chimp that attacked Nash.

When he was younger, Travis starred in TV commercials for Old Navy and Coca-Cola, made an appearance on the "Maury Povich Show" and took part in a television pilot, according to a 2003 story in The Advocate newspaper of Stamford.

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