An Alaskan man is lucky to be alive after a run-in with a brown bear while doing some land surveying. The man revealed gruesome injuries in a hospital selfie.
Allen Minish, a real estate agent, was alone when he encountered a brown bear. But land surveying almost turned deadly when the bear mauled him. The mauling was brief but devastating, lasting nearly 10 seconds. Minish accidentally startled the bear causing it to charge.
As a result of the attack, the bear crushed his jaw and also caused a severe puncture wound to his scalp. IN total, it took around four and half hours of surgery to treat Minish’s injuries.
“I saw him and he saw me at the same time, and it’s scary,” he told 104.5 WokV. Minish tried to use his surveying pole to defend himself to no avail “As he lunged up on top of me, I grabbed his lower jaw to pull him away. 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.”
Alaskan Man Struggled For Survival Following Bear Attack
The bear finally left Minish alone after the attack, walking away. Realizing he was in bad shape, Minish quickly called 911 for help. In an attempt to slow the bleeding, Minish used his surveyor’s vest and tee shirt to put pressure on the wound.
“I realized I was in pretty bad shape because I had all this blood everywhere,” he said. What followed was a grueling near-hour wait. Due to the remote nature of the attack, it took authorities 59 minutes to reach Minish despite getting exact coordinates from his GPS. “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.”
What followed was a quarter-mile hike through the brush, assisted by emergency responders. A medical helicopter flew Minish from a nearby airport to Providence, Alaska. Overall, he’s thankful that he’s alive.
“I guess I feel lucky,” Minish said of his encounter. “In all honesty, it wouldn’t have mattered either way. You know, if it killed me, it killed me. I had a good life; I’m moving on. It didn’t kill me, so now let’s move on to the other direction of trying to stay alive.”
