Charla Nash, the woman who was attacked and disfigured by a friend’s chimpanzee this week in Connecticut, was taken Thursday to famous Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, where doctors in December performed the first facial transplant in the United States.

 

Nash initially was taken to Stamford Hospital, where she underwent a seven-hour surgery after being attacked by the 14-year-old chimp, named Travis. Her face and hands were horribly disfigured. It required four teams of surgeons to stabilize her on Monday after the attack.

 

Sandra Herold, 70, the owner of the chimp, had called Nash to help her getting the animal back inside her house after he used a key to escape. When Nash arrived at Herold’s home, Travis jumped on her and began biting and mauling her, according to police reports. The animal was shot to death by the police.

 

No comments were given on Nash’s course of treatment, but most probably she would suffer a face transplant.

                                                             

“I don’t know at this point,” what kind of treatment will be followed in her case, Eileen Sheil, spokeswoman for the Cleveland facility, said. “Priority one is to stabilize her.”

 

To consider a face transplant, doctors must be sure Nash is medically stable, that alternatives have been carefully considered, and that she truly had given informed consent, because a transplant requires taking anti-rejection drugs lifelong, Dr. W. P. Andrew Lee, chief of plastic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh said.