Chimp attack victim awaits transplant

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Charla Nash, a Connecticut woman mauled by a chimpanzee two years ago, can't see, touch or smell and struggles to eat through a straw.

She's eagerly waiting for a donor who would enable her to undergo face and hand transplant surgery.

Nash was deemed eligible last month for the surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston after passing numerous pre-operative tests and evaluations.

The hospital, which performed the nation's first full face transplant earlier this month on a Texas
construction worker, is working with the New England Organ Bank to find donors who match Nash's tissue requirements.

The 200-pound pet chimpanzee went berserk after its owner asked Nash to help lure it back into her house in Stamford.

The animal named Travis ripped of  Nash's hands, nose, lips and eyelids.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)