Charla Nash—the 55-year-old who had her hands and face ripped off by a berserk chimpanzee in February 2009—will be admitted to an undisclosed Harvard-affiliated hospital to determine whether she is a potential candidate for face and hand transplant surgery, the Boston Globe is reporting.

The evaluation will take several months to complete before a conclusion is reached.

“I’m caustically optimistic,” said Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, who led the team that performed nation’s second face transplant last year, in an interview with the Associated Press.

Nash sustained her injury after attempting to help her neighbor recapture her 200-pound chimpanzee, which, in a rage, tore off Nash’s eyelids, nose, lips, and hands.

The victim has since appeared on Oprah, during which she unveiled her mauled face.

Nash’s family is suing her neighbor for $50 million and intends to sue the state for $150 million, for inability in preventing the attack, according to the Globe. The chimpanzee was shot and killed by police soon after the incident.

Chi King/CC BY 2.0