I'll Never Feel Sorry For Myself Again

[Aisling]

OMG I had no idea it was that bad! I knew she "had her face ripped off", but holy God to actually see the damage, I'm shocked! I never thought chimps could be so violent. Well, that naivete' is now gone!

 

[phamton]

She has thumbs on each hand that were reattached.

I thought she had just one thumb attached because the other arm is cut off between the wrist and the elbow.


It was so sad and she is so brave. I was so glad to hear that she didn't remember any of the attack. That is definitely a blessing. Her strong spirit was so evident throughout the whole interview.

 

[Feralpeg]

I thought she had just one thumb attached because the other arm is cut off between the wrist and the elbow.


It was so sad and she is so brave. I was so glad to hear that she didn't remember any of the attack. That is definitely a blessing. Her strong spirit was so evident throughout the whole interview.

You could be right. I thought they said she had a thumb on each hand, but I might have misunderstood.

 

[DVCLiz]

You could be right. I thought they said she had a thumb on each hand, but I might have misunderstood.

Only one thumb, Peg. The other hand is completely gone - her arm ends about halfway between the elbow and the wrist.

So so tragic...

 

[ksumn1]

So horribly sad, yet inspiring. Her will to live is amazing. I'm glad she can't remember the attack. I also found it so horribly cruel that she was attacked after being scared of the animal for years, yet the fearless owner was not hurt. You would think that the owner would have been attacked (from a statistically based viewpoint), not the friend simply because she had more contact with the animal. Another sad casualty of the attack is that hte 20+ year friendship between the owner and the lady attacked is most probably irreperably damaged. The whole situation is just tragic.

 

[surfergirl602]

I watched this today, too, and it made me so sad. Sad that we can have a dog nip somebody on accident and be put to sleep, but a woman can have a dangerous ape in her house that has harmed people before and not have it taken away. I just don't get it.

 

[PaulaSB12]

I just posted about this topic on another thread.

Ms. Nash is inspiring in her will to live and find some enjoyment out of what's left of her life. God bless her and help her in her struggles.

I can't say one way or the other whether the state of Connecticut should be blamed for this tragedy. I'll go on record as saying that until this story became news, I had no idea that chimps were so dangerous. I've been watching them on TV and movies all my life, and they always seemed so intelligent and gentle. Who knew they can turn into homicidal maniacs? I don't think the general public thought that way before this happened, so I'm not sure that the PTB in CT knew either.

That chimps are dangerous has been known for years. Jim Cronin an american expert on chimps set up monkey world in the uk to rescue chimps from this sort of cruelty because when they are little they are cute, but when they grow up they revert to be a chimp no matter how they are raised and they are more powerful than humans that alone makes them dangerous but the way they fight is to attack the face and bite fingers off. I really feel for this woman but I also feel that the chimp himself was as much as a victim if his owner had really loved him she would have let him go to a chimp sanctuary there are several in America and on in England who would have been able to rehabilite him into a group of chimps.

 

[Mrs.Toad]

I saw this, too. What an incredibly strong woman. Her attitude is amazing.

 

[Planogirl]

Did the chimp actually ever harm anyone before or was it just an escape artist? I'm trying to understand why the state didn't take the animal away before this incident. If I'm not mistaken such animals can be kept if they're used in commercials or some such way but only then.

I can't imagine how insane that animal must have been that day. It just floors me.

 

[OceanAnnie]

OMG I had no idea it was that bad! I knew she "had her face ripped off", but holy God to actually see the damage, I'm shocked! I never thought chimps could be so violent. Well, that naivete' is now gone!

I didn't know it was that bad either. It sounded bad, but it was worse than I could have ever imagined. That poor woman.

Did the chimp actually ever harm anyone before or was it just an escape artist? I'm trying to understand why the state didn't take the animal away before this incident. If I'm not mistaken such animals can be kept if they're used in commercials or some such way but only then.

I can't imagine how insane that animal must have been that day. It just floors me.

He did attack others. I can't remember the circumstances, the woman's attack wasn't the first time. The police had been called to the home on more than one occasion.

 

[antmaril]

After watching that poor, brave woman on Oprah today, I have no excuse to ever feel sorry for myself again. The woman who had her face and hands ripped off by a chimp was on Oprah today. For the first time, they revealed her face. They removed her eyes and built a mouth for her, but her face is totally disfigured. They grafted part of her leg to her face to cover the area where no skin was left. She has no fingers. She has thumbs on each hand that were reattached. She can only drink through a straw at this point.

This poor woman has a daughter who is a senior in high school. She is most sad that she will not be able to help pick out a gown for her daughter's prom. It totally broke my heart to hear her.

She hopes that someday, she will qualify for a face transplant. It may or may not be possible. When she first revealed herself, it was very shocking, but after a few minutes, it didn't bother me to look at her. I only hope that she can find some peace and be willing to let the world deal with her appearance. She currently lives at a nursing home. She has the right to liver her life no matter how she looks. Amazingly, she is not angry and holds no ill will toward the animal that was responsible. He was just doing what comes natural to a chimp. She is a very brave woman.

I said those exact words after seeing Charla on Oprah. I sent an e-mail to a friend saying that we have no problems - not one. I am ashamed of myself for not being able to stick to a diet and get to the gym. What this woman has to endure is unimaginable.

My heart broke for her. I thought Oprah did a good job. She treated her with compassion and respect.

 

[Briarmom]

She is my new inspiration.

 

[Nancyg56]

They just filed a Huge lawsuit against the state (Connecticut?) because they said they should have taken the animal away. Not sure.

I completely support a lawsuit against the owner of the Chimp but am very conflicted about a suit against the State. I think that once that happens it is going to open a door that will have poeple involving the State whenever there is an accident with an animal. It is hard enough to get insurance when you have certain breeds of dog, what is going to happen if an animal seems to be threatening to someone and then files a complaint? Does the State remove the animal to ensure that in the even something happens a lawsuit is avoided? If a complaint is filed does the State need to inform the insurance company so that the insurance policy is revoked if the animal is not removed?

I don't know. I believe this was a terrible tragedy and that it is one that may have been avoided if the owner had placed the chimp when it began to act strangely. In hindsite maybe some agency could have stepped in but I am not sure that 20 20 hindsight is the answer here. I do know that I do not want to have our State be forced to fight this lawsuit, determine that this is never going to happen again so more laws are in place that will make it even more difficult to own a dog or an animal that may, if provoked enough hurt a person. Most pet owners are not irresponsible with their animals.

 

[PaulaSB12]

I completely support a lawsuit against the owner of the Chimp but am very conflicted about a suit against the State. I think that once that happens it is going to open a door that will have poeple involving the State whenever there is an accident with an animal. It is hard enough to get insurance when you have certain breeds of dog, what is going to happen if an animal seems to be threatening to someone and then files a complaint? Does the State remove the animal to ensure that in the even something happens a lawsuit is avoided? If a complaint is filed does the State need to inform the insurance company so that the insurance policy is revoked if the animal is not removed?

I don't know. I believe this was a terrible tragedy and that it is one that may have been avoided if the owner had placed the chimp when it began to act strangely. In hindsite maybe some agency could have stepped in but I am not sure that 20 20 hindsight is the answer here. I do know that I do not want to have our State be forced to fight this lawsuit, determine that this is never going to happen again so more laws are in place that will make it even more difficult to own a dog or an animal that may, if provoked enough hurt a person. Most pet owners are not irresponsible with their animals.

Wasn't it illegal to own a chimp in that state? Yes the woman should have put the chimp into a santuary way before now because it wasn't behaving strangely it was being a chimp that is how they behave that is why they are not pets, according to what they say at the ape sanctuary in Dorset when baby chimps get to about 8 they revert to chimp behaviour that is what makes them so dangerous with the exception of one or two of the chimps the keepers of monkey world only go near the chimps when they have been sedated. I got this from time magazine which basically said that this accident wasn't a case of if it happened but when.



Why the Stamford Chimp Attacked
By Bryan Walsh Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009
In this Oct. 20, 2003 photo, Travis, then a 10-year-old chimpanzee, sits in the corner of his playroom at the home of Sandy and Jerome Herold in Stamford, Conn.
Kathleen O'Rourke / The Stamford Advocate / AP

The ferocious attack by a chimpanzee of a woman in Stamford, Conn., on Feb. 16 wasn't a question of if but of when.
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The 200-lb. chimp named Travis, whose owner, Sandra Herold, 70, raised him as part of her own family, had no history of violence — aside from one incident in 2003, when he escaped and stopped traffic in Stamford for hours. But when Charla Nash, 55, a friend of Herold's, visited on Monday afternoon, Travis suddenly lashed out at her. The 14-year-old chimpanzee latched onto Nash's face and tore it apart.
The victim's injuries were reportedly gruesome; the head paramedic who treated Nash on the scene told the New York Times that he had "never seen anything this dramatic on a living patient." Nash remains in extremely critical condition. The chimp was shot dead by a police officer, who was also attacked.

But even as investigators try to figure out exactly what triggered Travis's attack (he had been suffering from Lyme disease, which in rare cases is linked to psychotic behavior), the reality is that a chimpanzee living among people is simply a ticking time bomb. No matter how many years it has lived peacefully as a pet, a chimpanzee is not a domesticated animal and can snap without warning. "They are wild animals, and all wild animals are potentially dangerous," says Colleen McCann, a primatologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and New York's Bronx Zoo. "They are not pets. This is tragic, but it's not surprising."

It might be hard to imagine that a chimpanzee — familiar from zoos, animal shows and slapstick comedies like Cannonball Run — could be capable of the kind of savage violence inflicted on Nash. Travis himself was reportedly a beloved figure around Stamford; he was recognizable from television commercials, could bathe and dress himself and use a computer — qualities that made him seem dangerously close to human.

But adult chimpanzees might be better described as superhuman — a 200-lb. chimpanzee is five to seven times stronger than a person of the same size, especially in the upper body. "They are incredibly powerful, and people underestimate that," says McCann. "An adult male chimpanzee is a formidable animal. I would not want to be standing next to one."

Nor are wild chimpanzees the docile, childlike creatures portrayed on TV. Highly territorial, chimpanzees will attack and kill other chimps. Though mostly vegetarian, they will also hunt and kill other animals for food; young male chimpanzees in Africa have been known to fashion crude weapons and use them to hunt bushbabies for meat. Attacks on human beings are rare, but they do happen — and the results are often catastrophic. The former NASCAR driver St. James Davis, who raised a chimpanzee as a pet, was attacked by escaped chimps at an animal sanctuary in 2005; he was left with injuries and disfigurement so severe that doctors kept him in a medically induced coma for three months. (See pictures of the 50th running of the Daytona 500.)

Pet chimpanzees are also reservoirs of disease and can pass along infections like yellow fever, monkey pox and the Marburg virus to their human keepers.

Despite the potential threat chimpanzees pose, many U.S. states, including Connecticut, legally allow people to raise them as pets. Primatologists like McCann argue that chimpanzees should never be kept privately, and the WCS supports the Captive Primate Safety Act, a bill pending in Congress that would ban the private selling of primates as pets. The bill has stalled since it was introduced in 2005, but the Stamford assault may well renew its debate. "This is a tragedy for the families involved, for the animal and for the community — but it's not a unique story," says McCann. "When humans keep wild animals as pets, they pose a danger, and more times than not it will end in tragedy."

In Travis's case, his owner was forced to call 911, then attack and repeatedly stab him — a cherished pet she had reared for years — with a butcher knife in a desperate attempt to save her friend.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1880229,00.html#ixzz0WvFQxEFa

 

[T16GEM]

I didn't see the Oprah show (being in the UK) but I have been following this story since the attack, I couldn't believe the severity of Ms Nash's injuries, although I knew it was bad actually seeing it does really put the things that we all complain about into perspective.

I hope that she gets some great rehabilitation and has a good quality of life in the future. A very brave lady.