Minute-by-Minute Breakdown: How the Travis the Chimp Attack Unfolded
Surviving the initial attack was an improbable medical achievement. Nash remained in an induced coma for weeks at Stamford Hospital before transferring to the Cleveland Clinic, where teams stabilized her shattered facial skeleton. In May 2011, surgical teams at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston performed an experimental 20-hour procedure involving over 30 physicians, nurses, and anesthesiologists led by Dr. Bohdan Pomahač.
The surgical team performed a full-face transplant alongside a double-hand transplant from a female donor. While her body successfully accepted the facial tissues, restoring her ability to breathe unassisted through her nose, smell, and consume solid foods, her immune system developed severe complications regarding the transplanted hands. Systemic infection and dangerously low blood pressure forced surgeons to remove the hands several days later. Despite this setback, Nash’s recovery stood as an unprecedented triumph of microsurgical reconstruction.