By Calvin Palmer
The Connecticut woman who suffered horrific injuries when she was attacked by a 200-pound chimpanzee on Monday was today transferred to the clinic that performed the first face transplant in the United States last year.
Charla Nash, 55, of Stamford arrived at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio at about 4:00 p.m. She was accompanied by the clinic’s critical care team, spokeswoman Heather Phillips said.
Phillips was unable to say whether Nash, who suffered extensive injuries to her face and hands in the attack, would receive a face transplant.
Nash was attacked in Sandra Herold’s North Stamford driveway after she came to help Herold try to get the pet chimp inside. Police do not know what angered the 14-year-old chimp, named Travis, who was shot and killed by a police officer.
Nash underwent nearly eight hours of surgery by four teams of surgeons at Stamford Hospital.
Lead trauma surgeon Dr Kevin Miller said that, in his 10 years as a trauma surgeon, he had never seen facial injuries so severe.
Capt. Bill Ackley, one of the paramedics who attended to Nash, said her hands were horribly disfigured, but still attached to her wrists.
“I would liken it to a machine-type accident,” Ackley said. “She had some crushing injuries to her hands and some tearing injuries to her hands.”
Her head injuries “involved her entire face and scalp,” Ackley said. Nash’s eyes were injured, but Ackley would not say how extensively. Her hair had been ripped out.
“She just had disfiguring injuries,” he said. “Her nose was still there. There was some disfigurement. She did have injuries to her mouth that caused quite a bit of bleeding. It was very difficult to determine where everything was because of the blood.”
Nash did not talk, but was conscious. She was able to respond to requests to move her foot.
Nash was taken to Stamford Hospital, where the four teams of surgeons operated for more than seven hours to stabilize her.
[Based on reports by The Advocate and newsday.com.]