'Bloodthirsty chimp ripped off my face and hands – I'll never forget one sound'
A single mum who miraculously survived a bloodthirsty chimpanzee tearing off her face, hands and eyes before it ate her flesh spoke about the one thing she remembers from the attack.
Charla Nash, whose life was transformed from the chilling onslaught in February 2009, has shown remarkable spirit and endurance ever since. And speaking to 60 Minutes Australia about her lasting memory of the horror, she said: 'The thing I heard the most was the chimp screaming, screaming, and screaming and screaming.'
Given she had been through something truly unimaginable, the interviewer also asked her to impart a message to anyone out there having a 'tough day'.
Responding, she simply said: 'Take some time, relax, take the day off, and it will get better. It will get better if you want it to get better.'
Asked if her own life was 'good' again, she answered: 'Life is getting better. It is coming around. Slowly. But yeah, it is getting better, it is hard, but it is better.'
Charla was aged 55 when her friend, Sandra, invited her over to help get her pet animal, Travis, back into his pen. Sandra had been nurturing the chimpanzee, which she paid $50,000 for when it was an infant, as if it was her human son.
They slept in the same bed and after the horror incident at her home in Connecticut, US, she said: 'He couldn't be more my son than if I gave birth to him.'
But things took an ugly turn when Travis, acting out of character, brutally attacked her best friend Charla, flinging her against a car before viciously tearing at her face and hands.
Desperate, Sandra got a carving knife and stabbed him in the back, but the animal was relentless. The owner also called 911 and yelled: "He ripped her apart! Hurry up! Hurry up! Please!"
She continued: 'Gun! They got to shoot him! Please! Please! Hurry! Hurry! Please! I can't. I can't ... He's eating her! He's eating her! Please! God! Please! Where are they? Where are they?'
Police arrived to fatally shoot Travis and Charla was taken to hospital with her life hanging in the balance. Her pulse was weak and she had no nose, no mouth and just a thumb on her right hand.
Reflecting on the ordeal on the recently re-released 60 Minutes episode, she said: 'I am amazed that I was still alive.'
Her daughter, Briana, added: 'Before I seen her for the first time (without a face) I was very, very afraid of what I was going to see because I had no idea what to expect.
'That was my biggest fear (her mum dying) - what if she doesn't wake up? So when I finally saw her when she did wake up, it was an exciting and relieving moment.'
Charla eventually had a face transplant but her body rejected an attempt at a hand transplant.
She said getting a new face changed her life, but she remains in perpetual darkness, and she lives in a nursing facility where she is reliant on carers.
Despite previously acknowledging to Oprah Winfrey the 'scary' part was not knowing what her future held, and that some days she just wanted to cry because you 'want some kind of home', she has surprised many, even her own daughter, with how resilient she is.
Briana reflected: 'It is amazing, the human spirit, how deep it goes. It is not something you can see. It is something that is just there and it is powerful.
'And it has given me the ability over time instead of when I talk to someone, instead of just looking at them, I hear them... I hear them.'
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