A 23-year-old western lowland gorilla at the Dallas Zoo is back with her troop after human doctors performed a C-section and removed large cystic masses from her ovaries during an unusual surgery prompted by a miscarriage. Dallas Zoo Senior Mammal Curator Keith Zdrojewski said the zoo knew Asha w as pregnant, but her care team grew concerned earlier this summer after noticing symptoms rarely seen in primates. “We knew that Asha was pregnant…” Zdrojewski said. “They could tell that there was a lot of fluid buildup in her abdomen. They could tell what looked like a fetus, but they couldn’t find a heartbeat.” The Dallas Zoo began consulting with animal experts around the country. In July, the team also turned to doctors accustomed to treating human patients, including board-certified OB-GYN Jamie Erwin. “It’s very similar. It’s essentially the same, which surprises a lot of people,” Erwin said when asked whether gorilla anatomy is similar to human anatomy. The zoo didn’t just consult with the doctors…it invited them into the operating room. “For us in the human world, these are surgeries that we’ve done countless of times…” Erwin said. Once the surgery began, doctors discovered problems with both of Asha’s ovaries. “Once we entered her abdomen, we found that both ovaries were full of large cystic masses,” Erwin said. Doctors also confirmed that Asha had suffered a miscarriage. “Now, additionally, and sadly, Asha had experienced a miscarriage,” Erwin said. “Which meant we essentially did a C-section to remove the unborn baby that unfortunately did not have a heartbeat.” It wasn’t Erwin’s first time performing a C-section on a gorilla. In 2024, she helped make history by delivering Jameela, the Fort Worth Zoo’s first gorilla born via cesarean section. “It’s something I never thought I would ever do once, much less twice, but here we are, and I’m really embracing my role as the gorilla OB-GYN,” Erwin said. Asha was found to be cancer-free and spent a couple of weeks recovering before reuniting with her troop and returning to her habitat at the Dallas Zoo. “We know she’s healthy, she’s happy, she’s got her same feistiness back. She’s doing great,” Erwin said. This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC DFW. AI tools helped convert the story into a digital article, and an NBC DFW journalist edited it again before publication. ...read more read less