A surgeon who cared for a woman after she was viciously attacked in a McHenry park testified Wednesday that she suffered “significant trauma to her face, head and neck” and nearly died.

Dr. William C. Watson was on duty at Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville on May 5, 2024, when the woman was flown there in a medical helicopter from Petersen Park.

When she arrived at the hospital, Watson said she was unconscious and on a breathing tube. She had been strangled and physically traumatized. She suffered multiple bone fractures, lacerations and bruising to her face, neck and upper chest. Her left ear was partially torn off, her jaw was broken and her eye socket fractured. She also had “significant injuries to blood vessels on her face and several open fractures.” A scan also showed she had a brain bleed.

The woman suffered “life-threatening injuries,” he said.

For “several hours” Watson and two other surgeons operated on the woman and without those immediate surgeries, she “would have died,” the doctor testified.

The testimony was heard Wednesday, the second day of a bench trial for Raymond Link, 49. Link, who has been in McHenry County jail since that day, is charged with attempted murder in connection with the attack on the woman, now 61.

Link also is charged with aggravated battery for attacking the man who was in the park that day with his family and ran to help the woman. He heard a scream and saw Link strangling, jumping and stomping on her. The man testified to the events on Jan. 29, the first day of Link’s trial before McHenry County Judge Tiffany Davis.

Link’s defense attorney isn’t denying the attack but it arguing Link is not guilty by reason of insanity. The state, however, argues he is guilty but mentally ill.

Should the defense prevail, Link would be held in custody of the Illinois Department of Human Services and live in a mental health facility. Should Link be found guilty but mentally ill, he would be sentenced to a prison, where he could receive mental health treatment.

Assistant State’s Attorney Ashley Romito rested her case Wednesday. Assistant Public Defender Matthew Feda then argued the state did not prove its case and moved for the judge to rule in Link’s favor. This was denied.

On the first day of trial, the victim, who required another person to help her to the witness stand, said she was walking her son’s dog on a leash in Petersen Park that afternoon. It is a place that she “loved” and where she often walked or ran, sometimes with her husband. On this day, she was alone with the dog.

The woman said the last thing she remembers was sending a friend a congratulatory message about a work achievement, using the talk-to-text mode on her phone. She didn’t remember waking up in the hospital or the rehabilitation facility that followed, among other moments lost.

Link stomped with his foot and knees on the woman’s head multiple times, the man who tried to intervene called 911 while being attacked by Link and his dog.

A woman who testified Wednesday said Link lived with her in October 2023 in her McHenry home. Shortly after moving in with his pit bull – whom he named “Dahmer” after serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, though he later used a different name for the dog – Link spent some time in a hospital for psychiatric care, she said.

The woman said Link was “very rough” with his dog and often hit him. This is the same dog who was in the park with Link the day of the attack and was not on a leash, according to testimony.

The woman testified that Link worked as a welder in Crystal Lake and in March 2024, he was fired, which made him upset. On May 4, 2024, the day before the attack, she and Link had an argument, and she told him to move out of her house. He left with his dog, but the two exchanged multiple angry text messages on May 4 and 5, she said. She woke up May 5 to find Link in her driveway, and she told him to leave. He eventually did, she said. Later that day, the victim was attacked in the park.

The defense is due to present its case when the bench trial resumes on May 15, and Davis will hear expert testimony from a psychologist. On March 18, Davis granted a defense motion for state funds of $7,725 to pay the psychologist for professional services.

A bench trial means a defendant has chosen to have a judge, rather than a jury, decide the verdict.