A 61-year-old Alaska man is recovering after his jaw was crushed when he was mauled by a bear.
Allen Minish was surveying land near Gulkana, about 190 miles from Anchorage, when a brown bear which he estimated to be larger than 300 pounds attacked him.
Minish underwent a four-and-a-half-hour surgery to mend a crushed jaw and a puncture wound in his scalp, as well as numerous lacerations. The puncture wound exposed bone.
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“As he lunged up on top of me, I grabbed his lower jaw to pull him away,” Minish said. “But he tossed me aside there, grabbed a quarter of my face.”
“He took a small bite, and then he took a second bite, and the second bite is the one that broke the bones … and crushed my right cheek basically,” Minish said.
He tried fending off the bear by hiding behind some small trees and also tried using his surveying pole to keep it at a distance.
“I saw him and he saw me at the same time, and it’s scary.” An Alaska man survived after being mauled by a brown bear. The bear crushed his jaw and left him with puncture wounds and lacerations, including one scalp wound so deep that a doctor saw bone. https://t.co/6FWpUZlr2A
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 20, 2021
Minish estimated that the attack lasted only about 10 seconds and said that after it was over, the bear simply walked away.
“I realized I was in pretty bad shape because I had all this blood everywhere,” he said.
Minish then called 911, staying on the line for 59 minutes until help arrived. He also used his GPS device to give the emergency dispatcher his precise location.
“It took a while to give them that because I had so much blood flowing into my eyes and onto the GPS, I kept having to wipe it all off,” he said.
Minish said he has encountered bears before and knows six others who have suffered bear attacks.
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“That’s the one lesson learned. I should have had somebody with me,” he said.
