Full Comment - How I barely survived a bear eating me alive

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00:01:19.360 Hello, this is Full Comment.

00:01:21.060 I'm Sabrina Meadow, and I'm guest hosting this week's podcast.

00:01:24.160 If you haven't done so already, please consider subscribing.

00:01:26.620 Today, we're talking about the stuff nightmares are made of after two women were seriously injured

00:01:31.700 by a black bear in BC.

00:01:33.360 According to a report in the Vancouver Sun, this wasn't a mama bear protecting her cubs,

00:01:37.680 but a bear treating its victims as prey.

00:01:40.160 On the show, we have Colin Dowler, an actual bear attack survivor who found himself in a similarly

00:01:45.840 terrifying scenario back in 2019.

00:01:48.740 In his case, the attacker wasn't a black bear, but a 350-pound grizzly.

00:01:53.440 His story is nothing short of incredible, so let's dive in.

00:01:56.160 So we're having this conversation today because earlier this month,

00:01:59.940 two women were critically injured after a bear attack in northeastern BC.

00:02:04.780 And Colin, I want to read you an excerpt from a CTV News article on this situation.

00:02:11.440 Well after sunset, officers found the victims critically injured,

00:02:14.460 lying in the bush with a large boar black bear nearby.

00:02:18.440 Several attempts were made to scare the bear off.

00:02:20.480 However, it would not leave the vicinity of the victims, said Bounties in a news release.

00:02:24.760 Our CMP officers believed the bear to be guarding the victims,

00:02:28.360 so discharged a rifle, striking the bear, and killing it.

00:02:32.740 Now, Colin, what are your thoughts on this situation?

00:02:37.760 Oh, geez.

00:02:38.660 Well, my thoughts on that are that I have learned that black bears are like similarly deadly to grizzlies.

00:02:50.600 Well, there's a lot more of them.

00:02:52.700 And the majority of like serious black bear incidents are predatory male bears.

00:03:01.320 Yeah, it just sounds terrifying.

00:03:04.460 And I was reading a follow-up to that article that says one of the women has a 50% chance of losing her left arm,

00:03:11.080 the high risk of infection, and the other will remain in hospital for weeks or even months,

00:03:16.820 with no other details on her condition.

00:03:18.360 But obviously, it's incredibly serious.

00:03:20.740 And this is just such a tragic situation.

00:03:24.020 As someone who has experience rehabbing from this type of attack,

00:03:27.740 what's their road ahead going to look like?

00:03:30.760 Oh, my goodness.

00:03:32.120 I don't even know what to say, right?

00:03:33.920 Like, my heart certainly goes out to them.

00:03:36.360 Um, I know that while I was en route to the hospital, I certainly had fear of being an amputee.

00:03:44.020 Uh, and when I woke up in the morning after surgery, and seeing that I had both legs was, uh, I mean, it was, I don't know, like a joyous moment, believe it or not.

00:03:54.760 I bet.

00:03:56.020 Um, man, I don't even know, right?

00:03:59.340 Like, I was 40 days in hospital, and I had a pretty good outlook, all in all.

00:04:07.880 Uh, and then once I was out of hospital, I had some dire news that I may never walk normally again, that I'd need a leg brace for the rest of my life.

00:04:20.940 Um, and that, uh, hung over me for several months until the news started to look better, and my nerves were recovering properly.

00:04:32.980 Um, man, you know, I don't even know what to say for them other than, for me, keeping a positive outlook and sticking to the doctors and mostly physiotherapist orders, uh, has paid off well.

00:04:48.860 So, 40 days in the hospital, how do you even keep a positive outlook in a situation like that?

00:04:57.440 Perhaps the medication helped.

00:05:00.200 Um, but I don't know, I just, I don't think that I really had any other option.

00:05:05.940 Um, I think sincerely that, um, I was lucky in that I was able to fight the bear off myself and get myself to help.

00:05:18.860 Um, and then the loggers, you know, uh, stepped up to keep me alive long enough to get me to hospital.

00:05:27.320 Um, so I had a bit of a survivor's mentality, like, wow, like, I, I've got it this far, I'm, I'm going to carry the momentum.

00:05:34.620 Um, um, it wasn't always easy, uh, and then, yeah, I reached out to friends a lot.

00:05:42.340 I, like, I tapped into, uh, like, the love that I could feel from family and friends that were reaching out to support me.

00:05:51.140 Um, and I was able to ride that momentum for several months.

00:05:56.900 Uh, and then I remember, I mean, I, I got attacked in the end of July and it was sometime in the end of October.

00:06:06.720 So, you know, three or four months later that I did hit like a really low point and all in all, I had no reason to be low at that point.

00:06:16.580 Cause I'd just gotten some really good news that, um, my leg that might require a brace for the rest of my life was actually looking, uh, like it was on the positive track, not negative.

00:06:27.540 And yeah, I just, I caught myself in a rut and I wasn't sure how to pull out and I ended up calling one of my cousins and just having like a long, heartfelt conversation with her.

00:06:39.400 And by the end of the conversation, I kind of come up with a strategy of, all right, I'm just going to embrace the rut that this is a really crappy feeling, but it's not going to last forever.

00:06:51.400 And I've kind of rode the rut down and took that momentum to climb back out the other side.

00:06:58.540 That's so important to have those people we can lean on, but let's go back to the beginning because I don't, I'm not sure not all of our listeners know your full story.

00:07:08.760 So perhaps we can go back to July, 2019 and you can walk us through what you were doing that day that led you to being attacked by a grizzly bear.

00:07:19.620 All right. So yeah, on that day, uh, I just finished camping a night in the subalpine on the, uh, mainland coast.

00:07:31.500 Um, and I'd packed up camp and was mountain biking down a logging road, uh, back towards my boat to head home.

00:07:39.580 And that was when I came across at about noon, right? Came across a grizzly bear in the middle of the logging road.

00:07:46.200 Now, have you been camping in this area before? Had you seen bears there before?

00:07:53.140 Um, so I had never camped in that area before. I think that was my fourth visit to that area. Um, but it actually had been, geez, in excess of a decade, uh, since the last time I'd been up there.

00:08:07.260 Uh, so yeah, that was the first time I'd spent a night. I'd never seen a bear in there. Uh, but five weeks earlier when I was in the same area, uh, I certainly noticed there was a lot of bear sign, like, like a more than average amount of, uh, bear scat, uh, on the road and on the, uh, uh, the trail that I was pushing up.

00:08:28.620 Oh, man. Okay. So you see the bear, then what happens?

00:08:35.640 Oh, well, I stopped my bike and I, you know, yelled at the bear, right? Hey, bear.

00:08:40.700 It's kind of standard practice because really almost everywhere you go around here, there's the possibility of seeing a bear and or bear sign.

00:08:49.800 Uh, so you just get used to, you know, yelling at them and typically they, they turn and run.

00:08:56.020 Okay, so yelling is standard practice because that's counterintuitive to me. I think I would try to stay silent, but you're supposed to yell at them.

00:09:03.880 Yeah, just because you want to announce your presence, right? Like you're, you know, you're not sneaking around or up to anything nefarious, right? So just, uh, hey bear.

00:09:11.460 Yeah. It's pretty standard. Um, although I, this is only the second time I'd, uh, come across a grizzly. Um, black bears I'm super familiar with and, uh, just confident that they're not going to be a problem.

00:09:26.020 Well, I realize now that it was somewhat naive just because there's so many black bears around and they're generally not a problem. I realized that, uh, they, they can actually be a serious issue.

00:09:36.540 Uh, but anyhow, yeah, so I just stopped and the bear was maybe 75 or a hundred feet away and I announced to it, hey bear.

00:09:44.380 And, uh, then it stopped and it was looking at the bush and back towards me and back at the bush and thinking, man, that's a grizzly bear.

00:09:52.500 And I really just wish it would step into the bush and walk away like a bear is supposed to do.

00:09:58.600 Uh, but instead it decided to slowly approach me.

00:10:01.540 Uh, well, when I realized it was a grizzly, that certainly was a heightened, uh, sense of concern, let's say.

00:10:17.640 And once it started walking towards me, as opposed to stepping into the bush, uh, you became really concerned.

00:10:27.940 Okay. And then how do you react once it starts walking towards you?

00:10:32.220 Well, I was straddling my bike and I thought to myself, oh crap, this is a grizzly and it's walking towards me. 0.99

00:10:39.620 What do I do? I should probably ready some kind of defense.

00:10:43.380 I thought about, uh, like getting back on my bike and riding away.

00:10:47.280 I thought it is so close.

00:10:49.820 If it is interested in me, it's going to catch me anyways.

00:10:53.100 So I'm just going to stand my ground and I pulled one of my hiking poles off my backpack and I extended it so I could, you know, have some kind of long prod as a deterrent.

00:11:04.640 And I mean, it was probably pretty naive thinking, but I was feeling a bit desperate.

00:11:08.460 And then I, uh, banged my pole on the handlebars of my bike and hoping that that noise might deter it because my initial yell at it didn't do anything.

00:11:19.220 Uh, but he just proceeded to approach, uh, despite, you know, me trying to deter it by banging my pole.

00:11:26.460 Oh my gosh. Okay. So you're banging on your bike and it's still coming at you. Then what happens?

00:11:35.220 Well, it's continued to approach slowly until it was maybe 30 feet away.

00:11:40.080 And at 30 feet, I was still straddling my bike and I'm thinking, man, like I feel really vulnerable in this position.

00:11:46.900 So I stepped off my bike and the bear skittered on like all four paws and could like hear the scratch and the, uh, gravel road.

00:11:55.740 And then it paused for a second and then started slowly walking up towards me again and continued walking at that same slow pace, uh, until, you know, I don't know, just a few feet away from me.

00:12:11.100 And I looked at right in the eyes, not necessarily deliberately, but it was a piercing and I couldn't hold the, uh, the, the glare.

00:12:20.080 So I tucked my head away and I'm not sure exactly when the situation stripped me of all my confidence.

00:12:30.040 And I normally have pretty good bravado, uh, in the bush and around animals.

00:12:35.500 Uh, but I was incredibly scared at this point, uh, although still hopeful.

00:12:41.140 Um, so I'm looking away so that I'm not making eye contact and proceeded on methodically, uh, along beside my bike close enough.

00:12:50.880 I could have reached out and touched it.

00:12:52.900 I remember thinking, man, I wish I was filming this cause nobody's going to believe I was this close to a bear.

00:12:58.620 So it sounds like you keep saying the bear was walking slowly and methodically.

00:13:02.480 So this is actually taking a while to progress.

00:13:05.820 It seems like how long from the time you saw the bear to when it really gets in front of you, uh, maybe a minute, but that must've felt like the longest minute of your life.

00:13:17.560 I'm sure it was a long time.

00:13:19.200 I mean, I had time to get my pack off, take a pole off my pack, extend the pole, put my pack back on, you know, while it was walking up and then step off my bike.

00:13:29.540 Like, yeah, he was, it was a really cautious approach when he was right beside me there.

00:13:33.720 Uh, like he dipped his head two or three times, you know, it reminded me of a shy dog that doesn't know if it wants to let you pet it or not.

00:13:41.700 Uh, and then he walked like clear past another six inches and he, his rump would have cleared the back tire of my bike.

00:13:49.360 Oh, wow.

00:13:49.980 And then he did 180 degree turn.

00:13:53.040 Um, and that was probably the moment he asked, like, when, you know, did I realize like, oh my goodness, this is bad.

00:13:59.540 That was the moment that I was like truly frightened, um, because it wasn't walking right by, it was engaging with me.

00:14:08.020 Uh, so I spun, I put my bike in between us and, uh, as he, you know, moved towards, I, uh, reached out with my pole and I placed it on the flat of his head between the eyes.

00:14:21.700 Um, I didn't want to swat it like in my mind.

00:14:23.920 I'm like, I don't want this bear to be angry.

00:14:26.000 I just want it to go away.

00:14:27.040 Um, so I just placed, there's not even a poke or a stab placed my pole on its forehead and, uh, it seemed all right.

00:14:34.760 Like it was holding him back.

00:14:36.220 But then he rolled his head and bit the pole and we had a momentary tug of war and he let go and started coming towards me again.

00:14:43.020 So I dropped the pole and I unclip my pack and, uh, threw it on the ground.

00:14:49.600 Uh, he was pretty close.

00:14:50.940 So I couldn't throw it right in between us without striking the bear with the bag.

00:14:55.780 And the same idea was I don't want this bear to be angry.

00:14:58.720 No, you don't want to start a fight, understandably.

00:15:01.660 No, yeah, right.

00:15:02.940 So I, the bag landed like, like right beside a little bit in front of it.

00:15:08.440 And they took one quick sniff at the bag.

00:15:10.460 I was hoping he'd go for the food in it, which I've learned later is a foolish thing to do.

00:15:13.980 But anyhow, I tried it.

00:15:15.620 Um, and he took one sniff and then it was coming back at me.

00:15:18.900 And at this stage, I was trying to negotiate with the bear, like, whoa, whoa, whoa, hey, it's like, we don't need to do this, right?

00:15:25.200 I'm not sure exactly what I was saying, but.

00:15:27.120 Well, I mean, it's worth a try at this point.

00:15:29.300 Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

00:15:31.620 Uh, but anyhow, so then he started, uh, prodding at my bike, right?

00:15:36.460 Or I guess, you know, poking towards me and I was holding my bike out to block with it.

00:15:41.660 First, it, I wouldn't call it a swat.

00:15:43.980 It was more like a poke, you know, and then another jab and another jab.

00:15:47.860 And then somewhere getting into around the fourth or sixth, you know, one of these prods with, you know, his big, heavy paw with, you know, claws sticking out.

00:15:57.380 Um, he had raised his arm high enough that I felt like I was going to get like squashed under the next blow that was coming.

00:16:07.380 So out of desperation, I threw my bike at him and all in one motion.

00:16:13.260 And I remember seeing his leg coming through, I think there's like the center of the A-frame of the bike.

00:16:19.260 Um, and then he just stepped forward and, and lunged at me and grabbed me by the side between the ribs and the hip and gave a little shake to sink his teeth.

00:16:29.840 And the next thing I know, I'm being carried down the road back towards where the bear, where I, where I'd initially seen him.

00:16:37.120 So he didn't even like get a paw on your cloppers.

00:16:40.440 He just went straight in with the teeth?

00:16:42.660 Yeah.

00:16:43.080 Yeah.

00:16:43.400 Just went for a straight, straight lunge and grabbed me by the flank. 0.98

00:16:46.740 So I was, you know, suspended from his jaws.

00:16:50.220 I think maybe my heel was dragging, but I know that my head wasn't touching the ground as he was carrying me back down the road about 40 feet before he put me down.

00:17:00.080 And I don't know if he was, uh, put me down because I was slipping from his grip or because he was getting tired from carrying me for so long.

00:17:08.240 And so when he's carrying you, are you struggling?

00:17:12.720 Are you playing dead?

00:17:14.480 I like, are you just in shock?

00:17:17.140 What's happening during this period?

00:17:19.300 Yeah.

00:17:19.880 So I was, I don't know if shock's the right word.

00:17:24.560 I knew I was in big freaking trouble.

00:17:27.680 Um, I wasn't in pain, but I could feel like this weird sort of warmth around, uh, where he was, had bitten me or was carrying me.

00:17:38.360 And I remember thinking that I was kind of paralyzed by it.

00:17:42.180 Like I couldn't really use my arms.

00:17:44.780 I started to say, okay, I'm just at this thing's mercy right now.

00:17:47.260 I'm going to hang here.

00:17:49.420 And I remember thinking that if he drags me into the bush, I'm a goner for sure.

00:17:54.220 Uh, but he just carried me to the, to the edge of the road and, uh, put me down.

00:17:59.680 And then he cinched up his, his bite around my flank there.

00:18:04.280 Right.

00:18:04.520 So picture, you know, two teeth in my back and two teeth in my abdomen as big canines.

00:18:09.400 And so he cinched up that bite and gave another little shake to, you know, sort of sink his teeth in.

00:18:14.540 And I thought, man, I better start trying to fight this thing.

00:18:18.500 Like, you know, I can, I can do something now because now I was on like laying on the ground on my back.

00:18:22.480 So I attempted to, uh, like use a double eye gouge move, but his head was so big.

00:18:29.000 I couldn't reach his, his left or his right eye.

00:18:32.220 So with my right hand, I just grabbed his ear and stuffed my thumb into his eye as hard as I could thinking that I was just going to hold it in there.

00:18:40.020 And, you know, there's no way the bear was going to be able to withstand that.

00:18:43.860 But I, it was a blur in that moment.

00:18:46.520 I think I poked him in the eye for a millisecond and, uh, next thing I know I had been spun around 180 degrees and I was on my back and shoulders trying to kick the bear off me as he was corralling my legs with his paws and, and biting into my thighs.

00:19:05.460 Oh my gosh.

00:19:06.300 And when you say, sorry, I just want to go back a second.

00:19:08.940 Cause this shocked me when he had his mouth around your flank, the, his, the top of his teeth were in your abdomen and his bottom teeth were in your back. 0.98

00:19:18.740 The mouth is that big on a grizzly bear?

00:19:21.100 Other way around.

00:19:22.560 Oh, sorry.

00:19:23.160 His upper teeth were in my back or in like around the back, right?

00:19:28.260 I mean, officially it's all the flank, right?

00:19:29.900 But yeah, so his upper teeth were around the, on my back and his lower teeth were, uh, more in my abdomen.

00:19:38.800 Wow.

00:19:39.340 I mean, I, I just can't get over the size.

00:19:42.120 Yeah.

00:19:42.580 The bear was on nine feet long nose to toe.

00:19:47.040 Okay.

00:19:48.040 So let's get back to, you're trying to poke the bear in the eye.

00:19:52.360 You might've poked him in the eye for a little bit.

00:19:54.380 You're trying to kick him.

00:19:55.480 Then what happens?

00:19:56.680 Yeah.

00:19:56.960 So I definitely poked him in the eye.

00:19:59.900 And he's corralling my legs with his paws.

00:20:02.920 So he never swatted me with a paw that I'm aware of.

00:20:05.860 Um, then I could see his claws on like either side of my leg while he was like getting my leg into position so he could bite into my thighs. 0.53

00:20:16.860 And then I'm just, just kicking wildly trying to, you know, make this all stop.

00:20:21.640 And he's thrashing wildly.

00:20:23.440 And then that was on my right leg at first.

00:20:25.700 And then I'm not sure how much he transferred back and forth, but I think he went from my left leg into my right and then back to my left.

00:20:32.240 And, uh, uh, then ultimately he ended up settling down, uh, like high up into my groin, um, with me pinned under one of his arms on my abdomen and was biting into my, uh, left thigh.

00:20:50.920 And when I did like bite and give a little shake just to sink his teeth in and he'd lift his head up and then bite in again.

00:20:57.540 And I'm not sure how many times he did that again, maybe four or six times.

00:21:01.520 It was quite a few.

00:21:02.780 And then ultimately settled down in on, on my left thigh up high.

00:21:06.960 And it was like just twisting away.

00:21:09.180 And I remember thinking it felt like my hip was going to dislocate.

00:21:12.240 That might've been the first time that I got, like I really felt pain.

00:21:16.120 Um, and the feeling like my hip was going to dislocate. 0.57

00:21:19.400 So again, in desperation and thinking to myself like, this is just ridiculous.

00:21:24.180 This isn't going to work, but I have to do something. 0.78

00:21:25.940 And I tried, uh, prying his mouth off of my leg.

00:21:30.240 And so I dabbed my thumbs into his mouth, like into his gums, right?

00:21:36.040 Or like between the cheek and the gums.

00:21:37.760 I was prying with, uh, all it was worth.

00:21:40.280 Oh, I didn't feel like I was doing much.

00:21:42.460 And I could see his teeth and the drool and his, uh, gums were like huffing like a.

00:21:50.720 And, uh, I guess it bugged him enough.

00:21:53.720 He let go of my thigh and he bit my hand.

00:21:55.940 And then it was just one bite.

00:21:59.740 And then he went back into, to dig it into my thigh, but further down where I couldn't reach him.

00:22:04.540 So when he's biting your legs, is he just biting for lack of a better term, like for the sake of it attacking you?

00:22:11.200 Or do you think he's actually trying to eat you?

00:22:14.840 Okay.

00:22:15.140 Well, at that point, I think he was just biting for biting sake.

00:22:20.920 I don't, you know what I mean?

00:22:21.920 I can't really describe it other than, I mean, after I poked him in an eye, it was a, it was a frenzy.

00:22:27.660 Um, but then ultimately after I, he bit my hand and was further down my thigh, uh, chewing away.

00:22:37.560 And I was desperate.

00:22:39.020 I'm like, man, I'm out of ideas.

00:22:41.320 I was, you know, yelling a few things.

00:22:43.840 The only thing I remember yelling was why and stop.

00:22:46.200 I didn't yell for help because I knew there wasn't any.

00:22:50.900 And I was just, you know, yeah, kind of laying there in desperation, you know, feeling horrible that I was abandoned in my family.

00:22:58.560 And I kind of did this hike against my wife's will.

00:23:02.500 Um, and I could hear his teeth grating against my femur.

00:23:07.840 Um, and he was digging like the bite indications are not that he was like around my thigh.

00:23:14.360 He was like kind of digging in and then, and then pulling meat out.

00:23:20.440 And so at that point, uh, I believe he was like actively trying to consume me.

00:23:26.580 Wow.

00:23:27.200 Oh my gosh.

00:23:28.680 So how do you get out of this insane situation?

00:23:33.160 Well, so while, while he was doing that, I remembered that I had a pocket knife in my right pocket.

00:23:41.260 So it was quite a struggle to get to my knife.

00:23:44.300 Actually, I guess it's probably relevant, but I'm like, oh, I got a knife.

00:23:47.360 And I was going to grab my knife and he tore into some nerves, I guess, but something that hurt so bloody much.

00:23:55.340 I like screamed out of control and arced back.

00:23:58.680 I thought, all right, I'm just going to lay here, play dead.

00:24:01.300 And he bit into that same thing again and saying, I screamed again.

00:24:06.940 I thought, all right, doing this, I, I can't play dead.

00:24:10.480 I better go for my knife.

00:24:11.660 So I struggled like hell to, uh, get my arms, which were pinned on my left side, across my abdomen, under his weight,

00:24:19.880 to, uh, get to my pocket knife in my right pocket.

00:24:23.700 And I opened it up.

00:24:25.540 And then again, it was a struggle to get the knife back through to the other side.

00:24:29.400 And I kind of had to like reach up above my head to swing my arm through. 0.55

00:24:34.180 And then I kind of leant up as, uh, far as I could with his exposed neck and I stabbed him in the neck for all this worth. 0.96

00:24:43.840 And in my mind, I was going to stab him like, you know, a million times. 0.95

00:24:48.820 Um, but as it worked out, I stabbed him with the pocket knife.

00:24:52.160 And as I pulled the knife out from the first stab, he also lifted his head up and pulled his neck away from the knife at the exact same time.

00:25:00.920 And then in that moment, man, like I can't reach his neck anymore.

00:25:06.240 It was that long. 1.00

00:25:07.700 I thought, wow, I could stab him in the shoulder. 0.94

00:25:10.580 I don't really want to do that because right now he's not inflicting any more damage. 0.96

00:25:15.240 We should wait and see what happens.

00:25:16.660 And then a big gush of blood, uh, spewed from his neck and splashed onto my, uh, onto my waist or my hips.

00:25:26.060 And, uh, then ultimately from there, he got right up off me and, uh, walked back up to where my bike was, you know, like, you know, 40 feet back there and, uh, bleeding the whole way.

00:25:39.320 And then he'd sniffed at my bike and he ended up, uh, crapping three times, taking a huge pee.

00:25:47.100 So I thought I'd probably killed him because that was, you know, a sign of like physical trauma.

00:25:52.660 Yeah.

00:25:53.180 And, uh, sniffed at my bike for a little while.

00:25:55.780 And then he walked back towards me, but on the opposite side of the road until he was near level with me.

00:26:02.940 And then he turned and veered towards the trail that he had stepped out of where I first saw him.

00:26:09.620 And he stood at that trailhead and he would look at me and look back at the bush.

00:26:14.060 And I was just laying there looking at him thinking, man, would you just fall over and die?

00:26:19.480 And, uh, the bleeding was slowing down and he wasn't falling over.

00:26:24.880 And I thought, man, I'm dying here.

00:26:26.420 I better get a tourniquet on.

00:26:27.760 So I ignored the bear and cut my sleeve off and hiked it up over all my wounds, which was a little distressing.

00:26:36.800 I thought it was my pants that were all bunched up.

00:26:39.580 Um, so as I was trying to straighten my pants out, I realized it was actually like, like meat bulging out of the bite wounds.

00:26:47.220 So I just looked away from that and I went by feel and pulled the tourniquet up over all those wounds and tightened down the best knot that I could.

00:26:55.400 And the presence of mind you had in this situation to be still thinking clear enough to be administering first aid on yourself.

00:27:05.500 Like, had you had experience in emergency situations before?

00:27:09.620 How do you think you, you, you kept a hold of yourself?

00:27:13.920 So that I'm not entirely sure.

00:27:16.700 Um, I, I mean, I'm a little bit of an adrenaline junkie, so I mean, maybe from like years of boating experience and like, you know, I guess, you know, life threatening or challenging stormy seas, you know, I'll help you to keep a cool head.

00:27:34.040 Maybe that, skiing, I'm not sure, but, you know, I, uh, I've been in first aid situations where I was like, oh my goodness, I should probably help this, you know, old, old lady that's fallen in the parking lot and seems hurt.

00:27:47.400 I was so thankful when someone that knew better than me showed up to, to help and spell me off.

00:27:53.080 So yeah, no, I don't have any, uh, you know, specific training.

00:27:56.780 We'll be back with more full comment in just a moment.

00:27:58.900 Okay. So you're, you're with the turnkey, the bear is still on the other side of the road.

00:28:04.320 Yeah. What happens next?

00:28:05.600 Well, I, I finished with the turnkey. I looked over and the bear was gone.

00:28:10.380 So that was a relief. Um, although I didn't necessarily know like where it had gone to, but I was just happy that it wasn't looking at me anymore.

00:28:19.720 Uh, so I looked at the time and it was 12.01 and I thought, all right, like what, what am I going to do now?

00:28:28.900 It was, I did take a breather, right? Like, okay. Like I kind of relaxed and what, you know, what am I going to do?

00:28:34.640 So anyhow, it was noon. I thought, man, if there's loggers up the road, they're not going to come by until three or four in the afternoon.

00:28:42.680 And I didn't feel like I was going to live for that much longer.

00:28:45.800 So I thought my best option was to try to get on my bike and ride my bike down to the logging camp where their first aid attendant is and their, and their cook, right?

00:28:57.280 I'd met him the day before. So I knew there'd be someone down there.

00:29:00.680 Um, so I tried crawling to my bike. I couldn't do it because it hurt my knees too much. I cursed myself. I didn't curse myself out loud, but in my head, I'm like, dollar, seriously, if you can't suck up the pain to crawl back to your bike.

00:29:16.940 Uh, but I couldn't do it. So I think you were being a bit harsh on yourself in that moment.

00:29:22.500 Yeah. But the reality is I felt I needed to get to the bike and I legitimately couldn't hack the pain of the gravel in my knees.

00:29:30.260 Right. It wasn't the wounds. It was the pain of gravel poking my kneecaps. So I flipped onto my butt and I, uh, kicked with my one good leg, like pushed with that leg and my hands to push myself, uh, back to where my bike was.

00:29:45.220 And, uh, I got on my bike. It took me two tries. The first try, I, you know, face planting off the other side. 0.63

00:29:51.940 And that was a pretty low moment. I'm like, Oh man, I'm in trouble.

00:29:55.560 So, and I gave another try and I got on and I, uh, started a one leg pedal. I had my bad leg, um, was like weight to get my pedal back up, but I couldn't put any pressure on it.

00:30:09.420 And with my good leg, which was still, you know, I had 15 or 20 bite holes in it. I pedaled with that, uh, the seven kilometers back to the logging camp.

00:30:20.120 Seven kilometers. Like, weren't you in an incredible amount of pain? How did you make it there?

00:30:27.620 So for what it's worth, I, I was feeling no pain or at least none that registered. I knew I was in huge trouble, right?

00:30:35.100 Like I could just, I could feel my, my seat warming from the blood coming out of that flank wound, right? 0.76

00:30:41.720 Kind of pouring down my back and probably down my butt crack. I could just see all the blood on my legs.

00:30:47.920 And my boots were full of blood and, uh, and watching where the bear bled on my front tire and just seeing this bloody wheel go round and round.

00:30:59.020 And, uh, the caveat, I had just a three and a half kilometer pedal on relatively flat road.

00:31:06.140 Like I got to coast sometimes, but I had to pedal up like very slight uphills at times.

00:31:10.220 Um, but it was three and a half K until I could coast downhill the rest of the way to the logging camp.

00:31:17.060 And yeah, I just endured it. I don't, man, I was so tired that every bend that I went around, every little rise that I went up, I thought, okay, around this bend is where I get to coast the rest of the way.

00:31:28.980 Or above this rise, that's where I finally get to coast and there's kilometer markers on these logging roads.

00:31:37.260 And when I saw the 5K sign, I thought, oh my God, I've still got two more kilometers to go before I can coast.

00:31:44.640 It was like a truly disheartening moment because I didn't think that I had the endurance to make it that far.

00:31:52.460 I was just so bloody tired.

00:31:54.040 But you did make it that far.

00:31:58.980 And what happens when you get to the logging camp?

00:32:01.540 Yeah, right. So I crashed into the, uh, logging camp and it turns out that, so these loggers, I'd forgotten that, uh, they were boating to where they were working each day from the camp.

00:32:12.860 So there was no cavalry coming down the road, had chosen to wait in place for someone to come help.

00:32:20.740 Um, so one of the loggers, turns out, I learned after, had actually seen me riding my bike down, but he didn't think anything of it.

00:32:28.740 Uh, so he told the guys, oh yeah, you know, the guy from the, you know, the bush is back.

00:32:34.160 Wait, he saw you riding your bike after the bear attack and didn't think anything of it?

00:32:38.860 No, because he didn't realize what was coming, right?

00:32:40.760 He somehow missed all the blood, I guess.

00:32:43.420 Yeah, it was a ways off, right? I didn't see him, so it must have been a ways off, right?

00:32:47.320 And, uh, so anyhow, so I, I crash landed.

00:32:51.740 It was actually like, I landed quite well with my bike at the stairwell, which is three or four steps and then a small landing.

00:32:58.400 And then it goes into, um, like the galley where they, you know, eat and play cards and stuff.

00:33:04.920 And, uh, so I went to step off my bike and I like face planted onto that landing with my legs on the step still.

00:33:13.960 And they were already making comments, right?

00:33:16.540 Like I heard them chirping at me.

00:33:17.940 I can just imagine they're probably saying like, oh, nice, nice landing buddy or whatever.

00:33:21.980 Right. And, uh, on my ride down, cause I had a lot of time to think I'd, I'd made my, like rescue plan was to yell help as loud as I could as many times as I had to, to get someone to come help me.

00:33:36.060 Cause who knows where these people might be in the camp.

00:33:39.000 And, uh, and then once I had someone there to tell them to call a helicopter.

00:33:44.360 So I heard them.

00:33:46.020 So I just yelled help.

00:33:48.140 I've been mauled by a grizzly call a helicopter.

00:33:51.980 And they came running out and they were, yeah, they were quite panicking.

00:33:58.280 They were not ready for, uh, the bloody scene that they were looking at.

00:34:03.660 Okay. And so the helicopter arrives and what happens then?

00:34:08.380 Um, well, the paramedics came walking in and I was still conscious if only barely and, uh, sure felt good.

00:34:16.040 And it was kind of like that.

00:34:17.220 I'm not religious, but it was that scene where the sun shining in through the sliding glass.

00:34:21.980 The door and these, you know, two men in uniform with, you know, their bags and whatnot, you know, with the silhouette, you can just see their shadows.

00:34:29.720 So I was like, Oh my God, I'm saved.

00:34:31.900 Right.

00:34:32.080 Here comes my angels.

00:34:33.640 Yeah.

00:34:33.860 Hallelujah.

00:34:34.260 Yeah, exactly.

00:34:35.760 Yeah.

00:34:36.080 And they, uh, yeah, they go very, very, uh, calm and methodically, uh, got down to business and almost immediately, uh, put an IV in my arm and, uh, started to give me blood on the scene.

00:34:51.600 And, uh, and, uh, amongst other things, right.

00:34:54.880 But they gave me that blood and, and mentioned that, uh, they were lucky that they were able to give blood on the scene, uh, cause that was relatively new, uh, for paramedics.

00:35:04.100 And that without that blood, my odds of making it back to a hospital alive were slim.

00:35:08.800 How bad were things?

00:35:10.360 What, what was the prognosis?

00:35:12.420 Uh, what were your injuries?

00:35:14.560 Well, they didn't give me a prognosis right then and there.

00:35:18.260 Um, but they were struggling to find a pulse in my left leg, uh, below my knee.

00:35:25.400 I remember down around my foot and it wasn't until, I think it was like their, their pulmonary surgeon, uh, when she finally showed up and using something they called a Doppler, right?

00:35:35.440 She finally found a pulse and like, Oh, okay.

00:35:37.640 Yeah.

00:35:37.860 We got a pulse down here.

00:35:38.960 Um, and then they were, uh, really concerned about that flank wound, uh, cause my kidney was visible through it.

00:35:46.520 Okay.

00:35:46.840 And they, yeah, and they weren't sure if my abdominal cavity had been punctured or not.

00:35:52.260 Um, and yeah, that was essentially it.

00:35:57.260 I know at one point, uh, they asked if they could start cutting away, uh, dead muscle, um, to like prep me before I went in for, uh, surgery and my CT scans.

00:36:07.740 Um, and then a conservation officer showed up to get a statement and that got interrupted when I was getting whisked away, um, for my CT scan.

00:36:18.740 Uh, I managed to get a bunch of pictures right before I got taken away and pictures of my wounds.

00:36:24.580 It's like, no, no, my little brother and sister started taking pictures, but the, uh, medical staff wouldn't, wouldn't allow me to roll onto my side to let them get a picture of my flank wound.

00:36:34.700 They're like, it's not worth it for the Instagram.

00:36:39.240 Yeah, yeah, exactly.

00:36:40.700 Right.

00:36:40.920 I remember my little brother saying to them, he's like, all right, but you'll, you know, uh, you'll take a picture in the, in the surgical suite.

00:36:47.280 Right.

00:36:47.520 And you're like, yeah, we will.

00:36:48.720 But I'm sure they were just saying that to shut us up so they could wheel us along and take care of them.

00:36:54.360 I love it.

00:36:54.960 Your little brother has his priorities straight.

00:36:57.320 That's right.

00:36:58.160 Yeah.

00:36:58.420 Obviously the physical toll was huge, but I imagine being attacked by a grizzly would also be psychologically traumatizing.

00:37:06.000 Were you offered access to any sort of mental health care or a therapist?

00:37:09.820 Yeah.

00:37:10.280 Yeah.

00:37:10.580 So they, while I was in hospital, they offered that to me.

00:37:13.360 So right away in Vancouver general, it was offered.

00:37:16.060 And then, um, when I arrived at the camera hospital, it was offered, but honestly, I was feeling pretty good.

00:37:23.000 I said, you know, I appreciate it.

00:37:24.140 But right now I'm, you know, I've got really good positive energy.

00:37:28.420 Right.

00:37:28.900 I'm, I'm okay.

00:37:29.580 Um, so it wasn't until that, um, you know, but I don't want to call it depression, but that, that, that, that really low moment near the end of October, um, that the next time I had to schedule a visit with my family doctor, it wasn't much after, um, I mentioned that I could, I could use the mental health support now.

00:37:48.600 Uh, but just the way the system goes, I really should have got myself connected while I was in hospital.

00:37:54.800 Um, because now I was out, out of, out of that system and into more of the public health, you know, coming in off the street system.

00:38:03.060 So it took three months for me to get an intake appointment for what it's worth.

00:38:07.700 I don't think I started feeling post trauma, like sincerely until like two and a half years in.

00:38:18.120 Like it wasn't until this spring that I just, I was carrying like anxiety with me, like this tightness about me and had a little bit of stage fright in a work scenario that I would, I was already trained in and, and fairly confident.

00:38:36.260 And for whatever reason, like I, I, I almost fell apart and, uh, it was like doing some radio work.

00:38:42.540 Right.

00:38:43.060 But anyhow, I said, why is this happening?

00:38:44.900 And so I figured that was a post trauma, just kind of catching up with me.

00:38:49.780 So I went and I took a little counseling, but honestly, it didn't, I didn't seem to get much benefit from it.

00:38:55.460 So, so how are you doing now, both mentally and physically?

00:39:00.440 Uh, well, mentally, I, I can't say other than I am conscious that sometimes this anxiety, uh, I did like, I'll wake up with it.

00:39:09.660 I'm like, okay.

00:39:10.700 And I just assume it's, it's bear related.

00:39:13.100 This isn't the only trauma in my life either.

00:39:14.700 Right.

00:39:15.080 But the bear is the most, most recent severe trauma.

00:39:19.160 Um, and then physically I'm, I'm doing well.

00:39:21.960 Like if I stay on top of my routine exercises and stretches, I thought I'm really quite able.

00:39:29.380 Uh, but man, it doesn't take a long, like if I let it go, I, I regress quickly.

00:39:36.420 And then I'm like prone to injury if I try going for a hike or something, but yeah, I'm quite proud this, uh, this summer in the middle of summer, I did a 50 kilometer hike with a 35 pound backpack on for a half or more of the hike.

00:39:52.680 And I summited, uh, three, 6,000 foot mountains and, uh, across two glaciers.

00:39:59.300 So would you go back hiking ever or camping in a similar area to where you were attacked?

00:40:05.900 Have, have you been camping since?

00:40:07.580 Well, I, I've, I've been back up that exact same route that I got mauled on and, uh, climbed up in, into the, uh, Alpine with my brother and my close friend, Steve.

00:40:18.620 And camped the night up there.

00:40:21.040 Were you scared or were you empowered to go back?

00:40:24.180 Uh, not a combination, right?

00:40:26.260 Exposure therapy, let's call it.

00:40:28.240 Uh, but what I have learned from all the camping that I continue to do is that I essentially need to be sleeping, uh, with pepper spray or a firearm if it's hunting season, um, to have a good night's sleep.

00:40:43.100 And it doesn't matter.

00:40:44.260 Like, I mean, I do these mountaineering hikes with, you know, there might be two or three other people and I'm the only one with pepper spray in his tent.

00:40:54.180 Uh, and nobody else is doing it because the odds are so slim and we're in a big group and yada, yada, yada.

00:41:01.520 But I just need my safety blanket.

00:41:04.500 Of course.

00:41:05.420 So that leads up into my next question.

00:41:07.720 What is your advice for other campers so that they could avoid a situation like this?

00:41:13.500 Um, and also what should someone do if they see a bear?

00:41:16.980 All right.

00:41:17.540 So my advice is, uh, and don't get me wrong, I don't regret my years of like blissful naivety that I just walked through the woods thinking it'll never be me because, you know, I'm at one with nature and I've got confidence with animals and, you know, they won't attack me because I'm a, I'm an alpha predator, right?

00:41:41.420 Yada, yada, yada, yada, right?

00:41:44.160 So in hindsight, um, what someone should do is have a well rehearsed in their mind bear safety plan.

00:41:55.440 So what if, right?

00:41:57.140 If I see a bear, this is how I will react.

00:42:00.800 Um, so I think that's a good idea so that if you do see a bear, you already know what you're going to do instead of doing what I was doing, which was scrambling for, oh crap, what now?

00:42:11.320 Oh, maybe a pole.

00:42:12.140 Oh, throw my pack.

00:42:13.800 Um, I had pepper spray with me when I left for the hike.

00:42:18.460 It fell out of my pocket at some point during the hike.

00:42:21.860 So you should always have pepper spray with you and have it in a proper accessible holster, um, where it's not going to fall out of because I'm reasonably certain that, uh, because that bears hesitance when it approached me, had I have pepper sprayed it, it probably would have thought, okay, I'm out of here.

00:42:39.060 This isn't a meal.

00:42:41.380 Um, and then what else?

00:42:43.660 You just generally stay vocal, right?

00:42:46.140 And I was riding my bike.

00:42:47.340 I wasn't making any noise other than what my bike was wearing.

00:42:49.440 And I did have a bear bell jingling away on my backpack.

00:42:51.880 I didn't seem to do anything.

00:42:54.200 Um, and then what else?

00:42:55.760 I mean, this is just from reading, uh, a book from a bear biologist, but he suggested that, uh, with a grizzly bear, speak with it confidently.

00:43:06.180 Don't try to intimidate it because they don't like people trying to intimidate them.

00:43:10.580 They tend to escalate.

00:43:12.620 Um, but with a black bear, uh, that generally when they engage, um, you can do.

00:43:19.440 They do well by screaming, yelling, acting big.

00:43:22.100 And if they do like attack you physically, that the better fight you put up, the more chance they'll leave you alone.

00:43:30.140 Whereas he suggested with grizzlies, they tend to escalate the harder you fight.

00:43:34.620 They just fight harder.

00:43:36.860 Um, so I mean, that's really all I've got.

00:43:39.800 Well, no, you shouldn't say that's all you've got.

00:43:42.020 That's incredibly useful advice, especially for people who might not be as experienced with the outdoors or camping as you are.

00:43:49.780 Um, so thank you for taking the time to share your story today and impart some words of wisdom that hopefully no one will ever have to actually use.

00:43:57.860 But it's good to know just in case.

00:44:00.240 Yeah, man.

00:44:01.160 I tell you, it's the oldest, like getting struck by lightning.

00:44:04.880 But it's a, it's a very real thing, right?

00:44:07.080 My naivety definitely got me in trouble.

00:44:10.580 Well, thank you again.

00:44:13.100 Yeah, that was my pleasure.

00:44:14.500 Full Comment is a post-media podcast.

00:44:16.540 I'm Sabrina Meadow.

00:44:17.820 This episode was produced by Andre Pru with theme music by Bryce Hall.

00:44:21.560 Kevin Libin is the executive producer.

00:44:23.560 You can subscribe to Full Comment on Apple Podcasts, Google and Spotify,

00:44:26.900 or through Amazon Music where you can listen through the app or Alexa-enabled devices.

00:44:31.080 And you can help us by giving us a rating or a review and by telling your friends about Full Comment.

00:44:35.580 Thanks for listening.

Full Comment - October 17, 2022

How I barely survived a bear eating me alive

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