Tough Road for Chimp Victim Seeking Face, Hand Transplants

Jan. 27, 2010— -- Charla Nash, the woman who survived a vicious chimp attack last February, was recently told that she isn't a candidate for a face and hand transplant operation at the renowned Cleveland Clinic, where Nash has been receiving care for the past year.

Nash lost her face, fingers, lips nose and eyes when her friend Sandra Herold's 200-pound chimpanzee Travis attacked her at Herold's Stamford, Conn., home.

When she first arrived in the Stamford Hospital emergency room, doctors were astounded that she survived. Nash has continued to surprise the nation with upbeat interviews months later.

But her future has been pushed into limbo until doctors further develop the field of tissue transplantation, called allotransplantation.

Nash's attorney, Bill Monaco, said the family was told several weeks ago that the double hand and face transplants the family is hoping for will be fraught with difficulties.

"The Cleveland clinic has determined they don't believe they could adequately handle the hand transplant. So a facility that could handle both would need to do it," said Monaco of Feldman, Kramer & Monaco in Hauppauge, N.Y. "They've been great to Charla, but they can't take her all the way that we had hoped."

Monaco said the family is holding out hope for a double transplant rather than choosing either a face or a hand.

Given Nash's injuries and resulting disabilities, including blindness, it would be a hard decision. If she just had a face transplant and remained blind, she would have a near impossible time negotiating a prosthetic hand.