The Department of Defense is following Charla Nash's progress, after funding her full-face transplant surgery in 2011 when she lost her face, eyes and hands after being mauled by a chimpanzee in 2009. Picture: Charles Krupa Source: AP
CHARLA Nash never served in the military.
She was horribly disfigured, not in combat, but in a 2009 attack by a rampaging chimpanzee. The U.S. Defense Department, though, is watching her recovery closely.
The US military paid for Nash's full face transplant in 2011 and is underwriting her follow-up treatment at a combined cost estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, in the hope that some of the things it learns can help young, seriously disfigured soldiers returning from war.
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Charla Nash, who is blind, rests in her bedroom between her speakerphone and boom box at her second-story apartment in Boston. Picture: Charles Krupa Source: AP
Dr. Stefan Tullius, the Chief of Transplant Surgery at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, examines Charla Nash during an appointment at the hospital in Boston. Picture: Charles Krupa Source: AP
Charla Nash drinks a cup of hot coffee through a straw while visiting a cafe in Boston. Picture: Charles Krupa Source: AP
In the coming weeks, for example, Nash will take part in a military-funded experiment in which doctors at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital will try to wean her off the anti-rejection drugs she has been taking since the transplant.
Nash jokes about sometimes feeling like a science project. But the 61-year-old daughter of an Air Force veteran said she gets real satisfaction out of letting the doctors use her for research, and sees it as an opportunity to help wounded soldiers and "do something good out of all of this bad."
"They asked me, could they? I said, 'Yeah, I'd be thrilled to help out in any way I could,"' said Nash.
Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, the Director of Plastic Surgery and Transplantation at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, talks with Charla Nash during an appointment at the hospital in Boston. Picture: Charles Krupa Source: AP
A photo of Nash after her face transplant in May 2011. Source: AP
Pet chimpanzee Travis was shot by police in Connecticut after he attacked his owner's friend, Charla Nash. Source: News Limited
Nash lost her nose, lips, eyelids and hands when she was mauled by her employer's 90-kilogram pet chimpanzee in Connecticut in 2009. Doctors also had to remove her eyes because of a disease transmitted by the chimp.
She later received new facial features taken from a dead woman. She also underwent a double hand transplant, but it failed when her body rejected the tissue.
Now blind, Nash spends most of her days listening to radio and books on tape — lately, "War and Peace" — in her modest, second-story apartment in Boston. She also exercises a couple of days a week with a trainer at a gym to build her strength and stay healthy.
A GoFundMe account is being set up to help raise money for prosthetic hands.
Charla Nash chats with a neighbour on the speakerphone in her bedroom at her second-story apartment in Boston. Picture: Charles Krupa Source: AP
Nash smiles as her care worker washes her face. Picture: Charles Krupa Source: AP
A care worker brushes Charla Nash's teeth, which were provided by an organ donor along with her face. Picture: Charles Krupa Source: AP
Travis the chimpanzee as a baby. Chimpanzee Travis, kept as a pet by owner Sandra Herold was shot and killed by a police officer Monday, Feb. 16, 2009 after it attacked Charla Nash while she was visiting its owners' home. Source: Supplied
Her life today is a stark contrast to her younger years, when she was a barrel racer on the rodeo circuit from the 1970s through the mid-1990s. Over the years, she also did some horse-jumping, worked on a farm and manned a computer help desk. She was working as a dispatcher for a towing company at the time of the attack.
About every six weeks, Nash undergoes lab tests for the military at Brigham and Women's. She is also subjected to MRIs and CT scans to determine how well her brain is sending signals to her new face. In addition, doctors examine how well the arteries are delivering blood to the transplant.
The military is also interested in such things as any scarring around the mouth and how well her eyelids work.
"It makes sense for us to look at the civilian community and the experiences that are gained through the involvement of non-uniformed people to assess if this is a good solution for the military," said Dr. Brian Pfister, a portfolio manager for the US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command's Clinical and Rehabilitative Medicine research program.
Nash checks the messages on her answering machine from a speakerphone in the bedroom. Picture: Charles Krupa Source: AP
The framed photograph of Nash, taken before she was attacked by a chimpanzee, sits on a bookshelf. Picture: Charles Krupa Source: AP
Charla Nash prior to being mauled by a Chimpanzee in 2009. Source: AP
Sandra Herold, owner of Travis the chimpanzee who attacked her friend Charla Nash, speaks to reporters in Stamford, Connecticut on 18 Feb. 2009. Source: News Limited
About 35 full or partial face transplants have been performed worldwide since the first one was done in France in 2005. The Defense Department estimates 560 soldiers have suffered severe facial wounds in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of those, about 50 or 60 might be candidates for a face transplant, Pfister said.
The Pentagon is providing grants to 14 medical facilities across the US through its hand and face transplantation program. The face and the extremities are the two most frequently injured parts of the body in war.
The new experiment, involving the suspension of anti-rejection drugs, will eventually include other patients, and its findings could potentially affect hundreds of thousands of people, military and civilian alike, doctors said.
The immunosuppression drugs that transplant patients are typically given for the rest of their lives carry such risks as cancer, viral infections and kidney damage. Because of those dangers, many transplants of non-vital body parts, such as thumbs, are not considered worth doing.
But that could change if the drugs don't have to be a lifelong commitment.
Charla Nash as seen next to a cage that has a chimpanzee name Travis in it. Travis, a male chimp, owned by Sandra Herold, attacked Nash at Herold's home. Source: News Corp Australia
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