Gwinnett Daily Post

CHICAGO -- A Connecticut woman who was attacked by a 200-pound chimpanzee revealed her heavily disfigured face on television Wednesday, saying she is blind and has to eat through a straw, but isn't angry.

''I don't even think about it,'' Charla Nash said on Wednesday's episode of ''The Oprah Winfrey Show.'' ''And there's no time for that anyways because I need to heal, you know, not look backwards.''

Winfrey removed Nash's hat and veil to reveal her face, which was swollen and damaged beyond recognition. She had a large scar near the bottom of her face and a large piece of skin where her nose had been.

The Feb. 16 attack occurred when the animal's owner, Sandra Herold, asked Nash, her friend and employee, to help lure the animal back into her house in Stamford, Conn. The chimpanzee ripped off Nash's hands, nose, lips and eyelids.

Police shot and killed the animal. Nash has been hospitalized since. She remains in stable condition at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.

Nash told Winfrey that she is not in pain, but can't breathe through her nose and has to eat through a straw. She said she doesn't touch her face very often.

''I know that I have my forehead,'' Nash said. ''It feels like just patches of tape or gauze or covering, covering my face.''

It wasn't until a couple of weeks ago, when an eye doctor told Nash she no longer had her eyes, that she realized she would never see again, she said. Nash said she doesn't ask many questions about her injuries.

''It's like less for me to worry about if I don't know,'' she said.

Nash said she didn't remember anything from the attack and doesn't want to.

''I want to get healthy,'' she said. ''I don't want to wake up with nightmares.''

Nash's family has filed a $50 million lawsuit against Herold, saying she was negligent and reckless for lacking the ability to control ''a wild animal with violent propensities.''