A Washington man is recovering from a vicious attack by a grizzly bear last week as he and his cousin hunted caribou in northern Alaska.
Jadon Nicoara, 27, of Walla Walla, suffered bites to his face and recalled to KOMO News that he saw stars as he felt his bones being crunched.
"I was like, okay, this is where it ends," he said. "I was just waiting like, how's it going to be to just step over the line from being alive to being in heaven?"
Nicoara said the attack occurred so rapidly that he could not protect himself: "I turned around, and there's a bear just charging straight up, like 15 feet away, and his mouth was open. It was roaring, and I didn't have any time."
When the bear was on Nicoara, his cousin Daniel fired several shots to try to scare
the bear away. But the bear turned to attack Daniel, who kept firing.
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Daniel is quoted: "Then either he knocked the gun out of my hand, or it fell out of my hand when he tackled me. But at that point, I was like, I just got to get my face down and play dead and not let him flip me over."
The bear, possibly injured, left the area and Daniel, a doctor, scrambled to get his cousin’s bleeding under control.
At some point during the chaos, Nicoara used his cellphone to record a goodbye message for his wife and two daughters, still sure he would die.
This occurred August 27 about 100 miles southwest of Deadhorse. The hunters were rescued after sending an SOS signal via satellite phone.
Nicoara was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle after stops in Deadhorse and Anchorage.
On Wednesday a relative posted an update to Facebook saying that another surgery is planned:
"He's been resting and recovering at home and we're seeing a little improvement each day in swelling, movement and pain. His wounds are still looking good with no signs of infection, for which we are very thankful! He's scheduled to go back to Harborview next Wednesday for consultation and hopefully surgery the following day."
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game, at the time of this post, had not issued a news release regarding this incident, and had not responded to an inquiry by FTW Outdoors.
But KOMO News reported that the agency had performed an aerial search over the attack site and did not locate any bears.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Hunter mauled by grizzly bear in Alaska was sure he would die
