The Connecticut woman disfigured in a 2009 chimpanzee attack asked state lawmakers Friday to grant her the ability to sue the state so she can pay her medical bills and “have a chance to live a comfortable life.”

“The state knew what was happening and failed to protect me,” the woman, Charla Nash, said at a public hearing before being guided back to her seat by her college-age daughter, Briana, who later fed her a banana with a spoon.