Chimp Victim Moved to Face Transplant Clinic

Charla Nash hopes to undergo additional reconstructive surgery

(NEWSER) - Charla Nash, who was mauled and blinded by a friend’s chimpanzee in February 2009, left the Cleveland Clinic yesterday. She “has made great progress in her recovery,” the hospital said in a statement. Nash will continue rehabilitation at a Boston-area assisted-living center and hopes to undergo more reconstructive surgery, the AP reports. In January, the Cleveland Clinic told Nash’s family it could not perform a face and hand transplant. More»

(NEWSER) - Charla Nash, the Connecticut woman nearly mauled to death by a friend’s pet chimp, has been making dramatic progress in recent weeks and is now talking, moving, and asking for her daughter, the New York Daily News reports. Doctors had feared Nash would never recover. “For a time we were very worried,” said her twin brother, Stephen. “Now it’s more hopeful.” More»

Woman lost face and hands in attack, may have brain damage

(NEWSER) - Doctors are doubtful about any significant recovery for a woman attacked by a pet chimpanzee last month, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. Charla Nash lost her hands, lips, eyelids, nose and part of the bone structure of her face in the vicious attack, and has been in critical condition since. Doctors believe her injuries may have left her blind and with brain damage. More»

Unnamed patient now has 'face to face the world:' surgeon

(NEWSER) - Cleveland Clinic officials say the woman who underwent the most comprehensive face transplant yet exhausted conventional options before agreeing to the risky 22-hour procedure in which 80% of her face was replaced with a cadaver’s. The unnamed patient lacked a nose or palate and couldn’t eat or breathe without a special opening to her windpipe. She had been humiliated and ridiculed, USA Today reports. More»

Gunshot farmer gets total makeover

(NEWSER) - A farmer who accidentally shot himself is the first person in the world to receive a full face transplant. The man, in his 30s, is regaining the ability to speak and swallow after receiving facial skin and muscles, and a new jawbone, nose, palate, and cheekbones from a brain-dead donor, the Times of London reports. More»