Charla Nash, who was horribly mauled by a chimpanzee, says she is receiving compliments on her new looks after a face transplant six months ago. When she was attacked in 2009 by a neighbor’s out-of-control pet chimpanzee, Nash lost much of her face, her hands and her sight.
Charlie Nash underwent a face transplant and double hand transplant in May. The hands later had to be removed because the transplants failed to take, but doctors say she can try again in a year. The face transplant was far more successful.
After six months of healing, Charlie Nash is now much more willing to venture out in public and has even received compliments on her new appearance. She showed off her new face in an interview on NBC’s Today show on Monday. I’ve had people tell me I’m beautiful,” Nash said. “And they were not telling me I was beautiful before.”
With her new face now molding ot her bone structure, Nash says she is happy that she is no longer “scaring anybody” and was cheered when a child said “hello” to her recently. “That didn’t happen before,” she said. “It was nice.”
“She looks similar,” Nash’s daughter Briana told the Today show of her mother’s new face. “I’m still waiting for the underlying bone structure to take some shape on her cheeks. But it’s my mom.”