Came across my facebook page.
Not many details, but bolsters my tremendous respect for their power even more...




The guy lived to tell the story....

Tough old bird!

Was posted in the AK forum a couple days ago.

Bear spray would have prevented that...

7 mag?

Damn.

I did not see the skidoo pics on the AK thread.

I think the after pic was 17 days after the attack.

It can happen.

But I'd still bet on a lightning strike as being much higher odds.

270.

"Bro, not trying to be a dick. But let me snap a pic."




Dave

I'd love to have some bear huggers find out.

Lotsa things wrong with the pics associated. People don't heal that quickly.

And besides, I don't think it would have happened since he was driving a Ski-Doo!

Props for the timeline/ photo layout thing they did though.

"Smile for the camera" goes unsaid.

I can assure you the pictures are true. I don't know how those surgeons performed the miracle they did, as that is what it is, nothing short of a miracle. I was the first person to see the man, other than his hunting partner, after the attack. The date was april 15th. It was the most horrific thing I have ever seen in my life, as you can see from the pictures.

Waddya mean? I AM smiling.

But Timothy Treadwell said they are just big teddy bears.

Good Lord

Is there a story? The dude is obviously blind now correct?

There's the reason my skin crawls as I hike in the dark through brush in the Idaho panhandle. Opening day of elk last season I came upon the stench of a large dead animal close by. Guy I was with wanted to stop and try to find it. I doubled my pace and told him there was no way in hell I wanted to chance finding a grizzly in the dark on a kill. There's a lot of ways to go out of this world and being ripped apart by a grizzly isn't one of the ones I want.

I've seen some crazy chit in my life but I aint never seen anything like that. The timeline just seems way too short. I would've thought he'd still be just one big black and blue bruise from the neck up. Wow!!!

With Partitions.

Now that is just too much. Good Lord!

He lost one eye, but can see out of the other. He is the toughest SOB I have ever known.

That dude should never have to buy a beer again.

Tough SOB.

ouch........the guy on the right.....

wasn't he on one of the Alaska reality shows...?

he claimed to be an AK guide....looks familiar...?

Is that man's name Wes Perkins?

Ron

Nope. We is younger, still missing half his tongue, kind of a difficult deal for a fellow as gregarious as he is. Wes is getting along though, but he was torn up more seriously. The fellow pictured must have had basically a single clean swipe the fact that he's back together and healing so quickly. (Or perhaps his surgeon's initial were J.C.! )

Just in general, the guy in the middle of the threesome pic couldn't be the man who had his face bitten or swiped off 17 days earlier.

That's two weeks + after major reconstructive surgery (multiple?). He'd still have dressings on plus a drain or two in place. Not to mention having grown out a full, symmetrical mustache from rearranged tissue.

Edit: maybe I'm wrong as blowing up the pic shows the mustache is not symmetrical. It could be that as much as his face looks gone on the first pic, it's really folded over as in a big flap. This would make the surgeons job much easier and the surgery less than a total reconstructive job.

That guy in the middle is him. I talked to him while his face was in that condition, as we waited for the medevac chopper. He was missing an eye, and most of an ear, but I believe you may be correct in saying that most of his face was still there. It was the most horrific thing I have ever experienced in my life, and I am thankful my friend is alive and thankful for the amazing work the team of surgeons did.

I sort of wish I hadn't seen that.......

Dude, that's fuggin cold.

oops never mind editing what I posted what are the odds of this happening again [bleep]

Negative on 2012, different story, different zip code entirely...

As Sitka said, different story. This happened three weeks ago.

Yep I edited my post I remember when ol boy got [bleep] up in 2012..

Up on the Denali hwy

http://www.alaskapublic.org/2016/04/18/man-mauled-by-a-grizzly-bear-near-denali-highway/

Kind of interesting that this fellow is the same man whose son, Bret, a hunting guide, was involved in a guardianship battle 2 years ago:

http://www.adn.com/article/20140308/wasilla-hunting-guide-hospitalized-providence-becomes-ward-state

So..this dude posed for pics after getting his face chewed off by a bear?

I nominate him BADASS of the decade!

*Edit to add* That pic does look like his scalp is hanging over his face but still...

How in the [bleep] is he not blind?! OMG

I worked in Glacier National Park in the summers of 1960 and '61 (college summer jobs). I had 4 encounters with grizzlies and had to kill one that treed me. This followed a viscous attack on a ranger and another ranger's 12-year old son. Both were badly mauled, the boy's face was gone much like the man in the pictures. I've always admired grizzlies and feared them as well.

They are beautiful and powerful.

You don't want to look, but can't help it. That is a miracle.

Good God have mercy. It would take a man w/a claw hammer a half hour to do that to a man. A grizzly does it in less than 10 seconds w/one swipe. powdr

I pray the man recovers. That looked horrible.

On this big pic there IS a lot of flap there that can be brought over and thankfully the face is well perfused so the tissue though partially shredded could still remain viable. And on the left side of his face, to the left of where the bridge of the nose would be there might be an open sinus which means facial bone was opened and there is only a small part of an inch to his brain pan. That would make sense since that left eye is also gone. As far as faces go he couldn't have lost much more. Thank the Lord for to be left an eye. Truly a literal miracle.

Also the nose is completely missing unless it's on the back side of that flap which is possible.

I still find 17 days almost un believable as he still should have swelling there and a lot of discoloration minimally I would think.

So what is the story????

To All:

On a side note, think about that pic next time you think poorly of a person with PTSD or think we should rush our boys off to war without a really good reason.

Glad the fellow is as well as he is.


Mike

These pics look horrific to the layman, but in fact the injuries aren't that bad, speaking from a medical trauma perspective. The facial injuries basically amount to nothing more than a large flap laceration, and as the "after" pics show, it was clearly repairable. The loss of his eye was/is really the only serious permanent injury. I've actually seen worse facial flap lacs on people who've gone through a windshield. When you consider the fact that that griz could've killed him by biting through his neck/throat, ripping open his chest or abdomen, etc, all of which are within a grizzly's attack repertoire, he came out pretty OK.

Good work by the surgeons, though, and I am in no way belittling the man. He must be one tough hombre. Glad he's doing better.

Doc, thank you for explaining the injuries from a medical trauma perspective. As being someone who saw this man after the attack, I have been absolutely astonished in how the doctors put him back together, and the shape his in today. He was also missing most of an ear, as we had that on ice, but I believe it was able to be reattached, though I am not certain.

When we were trying to help the man and provide first aid, we believed he was going to live as the bear had not gotten any major arteries, or his airway. But, my question to you Doc, when a person has facial injuries as such, what could be don to treat the facial injuries, if anything, to provide any sort of first aid until he could get to medical attention?

Griz, the best thing to do with ANY flap laceration is to flop it back where it's supposed to be. We call that a biological dressing. You might flush it with clean water first, if you have it, and if the patient can stand it, that would get all the bacteria from the bear's filthy mouth/claws rinsed off to reduce infection. Secure the flap in place with gently wrapped gauze or an IBD or a torn-up shirt, whatever you have on hand. Give him antibiotics and pain meds, if you've got 'em, and get him to a hospital asap.

Thanks for that info Doc. It was just such a mess, it was hard to know what went where.

What happened? Did he wound it first? Sow and cubs?

He lived to tell the story. So what's the story? I assume either he or someone else shot the bear, because it's laying there dead.

What would have happened if that crazy pet c-h-i-m-p was on the scene? Could he have stopped the bear? A Pitbull?

yep good info indeed Doc, thank you

One of our own here was attacked by a bear, IIRC it was Ken Howell. Maybe someone can dig up his retelling of it.

Did this guy heal up well ?

That occurred six years ago. Anyone know the actual story on the attack? i've never read what happened, other than "he was bear hunting and a Grizz jumped him."

Anyone know??

L.W.

https://www.adn.com/features/articl...ost-face-grizzly-bear-attack/2012/09/14/

Some info here:
https://www.themeateater.com/listen...that-shocked-the-internet-with-bret-bohn



I didn’t click on the podcast, so don’t know if that will come up.

The event in question occurred in 2016.


The 2012 attack in the link is a different event.

Not the event under discussion.