--- title: Chimp Victim Hospitalized After Body Rejects Face Transplant description: A Connecticut woman who received a face transplant five years ago after being attacked by a chimpanzee was hospitalized again this week canonical: https://time.com/4322053/chimp-attack-victim-face-transplant-hospitalized/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-07T14:18:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T17:21:51.561Z article:section: Health og:title: Chimp Victim Hospitalized After Body Rejects Face Transplant og:description: Doctors expect to resolve the problem within the week og:url: https://time.com/4322053/chimp-attack-victim-face-transplant-hospitalized/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt31e880f03bae0573/6988924e524fc052b2df7e49/charla-nash.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Chimp Attack Victim Lobbies On Capitol Hill To Ban Trade Of Primates As Pets og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Chimp Victim Hospitalized After Body Rejects Face Transplant twitter:description: Doctors expect to resolve the problem within the week twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt31e880f03bae0573/6988924e524fc052b2df7e49/charla-nash.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Chimp Victim Hospitalized After Body Rejects Face Transplant > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=d1333071-fb6a-457d-9f5e-22f3fbe1b45d&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1)  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly May 7, 2016 2:18 PM UTC  Charla Nash, the victim of a mauling by a pet chimp in Connecticut in 2009 and who underwent a face transplant, speaks at a press conference July 10, 2014 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Charla Nash, the victim of a mauling by a pet chimp in Connecticut in 2009 and who underwent a face transplant, speaks at a press conference July 10, 2014 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Win McNamee/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly May 7, 2016 2:18 PM UTC A Connecticut woman who received a face transplant five years ago after being [attacked by a chimpanzee](http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1880229,00.html) was [hospitalized again this week](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/25dfd5f0cffb44178f1bd66f957de7f5/apnewsbreak-womans-body-rejecting-face-transplant) because her body was rejecting the transplant. Doctors had been trying to wean the woman—Charla Nash, 62—off anti-rejection drugs as part of an experiment funded by the military. The experiment aimed to find solutions that would help soldiers who receive transplants and often have to take anti-rejection drugs, which can have serious side effects, for the rest of their lives, the [Associated Press reported on Wednesday](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/25dfd5f0cffb44178f1bd66f957de7f5/apnewsbreak-womans-body-rejecting-face-transplant). Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, director of plastic surgery transplantation at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said Nash has now been removed from the experiment and her face transplant has not been threatened. “We expect this rejection episode to be resolved within the coming week,” he said, the AP reported. “I gave it my all and know my participation in the study will still be beneficial, said Nash, who lost her nose, lips, eyelids and hands in the 2009 attack by her employer’s chimpanzee, according to the AP. “I’d do it all over again, if I could. The men and women serving our country are the true heroes.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4322053/chimp-attack-victim-face-transplant-hospitalized/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4322053/chimp-attack-victim-face-transplant-hospitalized/"},"headline":"Chimp Victim Hospitalized After Body Rejects Face Transplant","datePublished":"2016-05-07T14:18:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T17:21:51.561Z","description":"Doctors expect to resolve the problem within the week","url":"https://time.com/4322053/chimp-attack-victim-face-transplant-hospitalized/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt31e880f03bae0573/6988924e524fc052b2df7e49/charla-nash.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt31e880f03bae0573/6988924e524fc052b2df7e49/charla-nash.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Chimp Attack Victim Lobbies On Capitol Hill To Ban Trade Of Primates As Pets","caption":"Chimp Attack Victim Lobbies On Capitol Hill To Ban Trade Of Primates As Pets","creditText":"Win McNamee/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4322053/chimp-attack-victim-face-transplant-hospitalized/","name":"Chimp Victim Hospitalized After Body Rejects Face Transplant"}}]}] ```