A 35-year-old man who was attacked by a grizzly describes how he survived.
On Thursday, May 30, Shayne Patrick Burke shared the details of his dangerous encounter in an interview with ABC News.
Shayne, a double-deployed Iraq veteran and brain tumor survivor, said he and his wife, Chloe Burke, were on their honeymoon in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park earlier this month when he decided to hike in a different direction in search of “special owl”, according to the outlet. It was at that moment that he met the bear and his protective mother.
“I locked it,” Shayne recalled to ABC News. “It’s decision making at such a terrible time. It’s crazy how fast it all happens. I don’t know. I just went with pure instinct.”
He added that even though he was carrying bear spray, he quickly realized he “wasn’t going to be able to spray this animal.”
“That’s when I ducked down and covered myself. She just bit each leg, picked me up and kind of thrashed me,” he continued. “Then she moved towards my head. But I kept my hands intertwined… I was just trying to protect the arteries in my neck. She bent down and took my left wrist and right hand.”
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Grand Teton National Park sign.
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Shayne recalled hearing a “pop” sound and thought the bear had punctured his skull. However, the bear bit into his can of bear spray, causing her to run away.
“The pepper kind of hit me and I said, ‘you’re still alive,'” the veteran said.
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After the attack, Shayne managed to climb to safety and call his wife, who is an ambulance. Chloe instructed her husband to apply tourniquets in hopes of slowing the bleeding.
“I hung up the phone not knowing if I had spoken to my husband for the last time,” Chloe told ABC News.
When the rangers reached Shayne, he asked them not to kill the bear and explained that she was only protecting her cub. The rangers agreed that the mother bear was looking out for the best interest of her cub, so she did not have to be euthanized.
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Stock image of a bear.
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“Nobody ever starts the day thinking, ‘I’m going to get attacked by a bear today.’ That’s what happened to us and I’m really thankful that my husband was ready and had these wonderful instincts to save his life and give it back to us,” Chloe added.
After the attack, a press release was posted on the National Parks website confirming that Shayne was “seriously injured by a bear in the Signal Mountain Summit Road area.”
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The release said park rangers and Teton County Search and Rescue personnel provided emergency medical treatment, and Shayne was airlifted to an ambulance that took him to nearby St. John’s Hospital. John’s.
“Based on initial reports of an injured visitor and preliminary information conducted as part of the ongoing site investigation, law enforcement and park biologists believe the incident was a surprise encounter between two grizzly bears, with one of the bears contacting and injuring a visitor,” it added. in the press release.
The website confirmed that Signal Mountain Summit Road and Signal Mountain Trail were closed to the public following the attack.
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Shayne called the encounter with the bear “the most violent thing I’ve ever experienced” in a Facebook post published on May 23.
“The number one thing that kept me alive during an attack was reading and understanding what to do in the event of a bear attack and having bear spray ready,” he wrote. “Although I’m not sure if I need to spray the bear, having it on me and holding it in my hands while protecting my vitals is 100% the only reason I’m telling my story now.”
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Source: HIS Education