Lawyer: Cleveland hospital can’t perform face, hand transplants on Conn. chimp victim

Lawyer: Chimp victim seeking face, hand transplant

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — An attorney for a Connecticut woman mauled by a chimpanzee a year ago says an Ohio hospital has told the family it can’t perform a face and hand transplant for her.

Charla Nash’s attorney Bill Monaco says the family is looking at other facilities after the Cleveland Clinic said it could not do both transplants there. He says the transplants have to be done simultaneously and come from the same donor.

Telephone messages were left Monday with the Cleveland Clinic. In 2008, the hospital performed the nation’s first face transplant.

The 200-pound chimpanzee went berserk in February after its owner asked Nash to help lure him back into her house. The animal ripped off Nash’s hands, nose, lips and eyelids.