Michael A. Dunn, a 36-year-old Park City man who was mauled Sunday by a huge bear - probably a grizzly - in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, doesn't hesitate to give credit where credit is due for his life.
"Obviously, God saved me. There is no reason the bear should have gotten up and left, and there is no logical reason why I could walk a mile with all the wounds" suffered in the attack, Dunn said by phone early Tuesday.Dunn, a former Scouting leader who had received some instruction about what to do in a bear attack, is a patient at St. John's Hospital in Jackson, Wyo., where he underwent surgery Sunday and was in fair condition Tuesday. Additional surgery was scheduled Tuesday afternoon.
The Bonneville Communications writer, who was vacationing at the park with his wife, Linda, and their three children, Jeffrey, 10; Brady, 8; and Emily, 4, was attacked by the bear as he was jogging early in the morning on the north end of the Emma Matilda Lake Trail.
Dunn, who was alone at the time, apparently surprised the bear, which charged him and inflicted deep wounds over much of his body. Dunn said the attack lasted about two minutes but seemed to drag on for a half hour.
Dunn, who is 6 feet tall and weighs 165, said his run along the trail took him through a heavily wooded and peaceful area. He said he noticed that some berries had been picked at one point along the trail and thought that perhaps a bear had been along the trail.
Minutes later, "I heard a rustling (sound) and breaking of (branches) as I saw the bear about 10 to 15 yards away. By the time I saw him he was going at full speed toward me. It was like a split second, but by the time I looked he had closed to within about 10 yards. He came after me and knocked me down. As he tried to bite me, I would twist and try to squirm out of the way, but he turned me over and clawed and bit me.
"I had a real sense that I was going to die on the trail. (The attack) was terribly frightening. I felt real panicky. He got me into a position to where he had his claw in my mouth. He was trying to twist my head back," Dunn said, explaining that park rangers told him later that bears try to break the spine of their victims.
"I know (now) from their description what the bear was doing. I realize he was trying to break my back," Dunn recalled.
During the attack, the bear jammed his claw into Dunn's mouth. As the claw slipped out, Dunn suffered a deep, slashing cut above his ear on the right side of his head.
"I just prayed as hard as I could" while at the same time "I was screaming and trying to make as much noise as I could. At that point, the bear rolled me over and was now on top of me. I tried to hit him with my fist. I think it was my right arm that was free, but I knew that fighting him wasn't going to have much impact, so I curled up in the fetal position and played dead. (At that point) the bear got up and went about 10 to 20 yards down the trail. The bear then stood up on his hind legs and ran off into the forest," Dunn said.
Dunn said he was able to stand up and realized that apparently he suffered no broken bones. "But I was bleeding severely from my back, my head, upper right thigh and abdomen. I took my shirt off and wrapped it around my thigh. I figured the bear would come back so I decided I was going to get out of there."
Knowing he was in a remote area, Dunn said he decided to head back toward Jackson Lake Lodge, hoping someone would come along and find him. About 40 minutes after the attack, Dunn summoned a man and two women on the trail ahead of him. The man went for help, and the women wrapped him in a blanket and provided him water and comfort. About 90 minutes later, a ranger with a first aid kit arrived, and a second ranger came to say a helicopter was on the way.
Dunn said a doctor told him it is a miracle that the bear's claws missed a jugular vein on the side of his neck. Had the vein been hit, "the doctor said I would have been dead in three to five minutes."
Dunn said a femoral artery in his leg was also missed during the mauling. He was slashed on both sides of the artery but not on the artery itself.
Dunn said he was wearing sunglasses, which were found by park rangers about 10 feet from where the bear launched the attack.
"There is a large claw mark in the glasses. If I had not been wearing them, I would have certainly lost an eye," Dunn said.
"I just feel extremely grateful to the National Park Service rescue staff and to doctors and (other) staff at St. Joseph's Hospital. I will probably be in the hospital until about Saturday," Dunn said.
He said park rangers haven't positively identified the attacker as a grizzly "but from all actions (described) they think it was. The bear was about 7 to 9 feet when he stood on his hind legs. The bear didn't make a lot of (noise) during the attack," Dunn said.
He said he has been told that a grizzly can run as fast as a horse at top speed.
Linda Dunn said she and other family members were camping about five miles away at Coulter Bay during the bear attack. "We usually run together. We run every day, but my parents were leaving (the camp) and he (her husband) wanted to go on a longer run," Linda Dunn said.
Grateful that her husband is alive to tell the tale, she said, "I know for a fact that it was not only his physical and mental strength but a higher power that saved him. The people who found him visited us yesterday. They kept saying over and over again how calm he was. He told them what to do. They couldn't get over how strong he was mentally and physically," Linda Dunn said.