True Crime Podcast 2025 - Police Interrogations, 911 Calls and True Police Stories Podcast

I was mauled by a bear, fought it off, and drove 4 miles down a mountain with my face hanging off.

I was mauled by a bear, fought it off, and drove 4 miles down a mountain with my face hanging off.

I was mauled by a bear and I fought it off. Ask Me Anything!

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Duration:: 14m
Broadcast on:: 01 Jan 2025
Audio Format:: other

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I hiked out of a box canyon and drove myself four miles down a rutted logging road to our little rural fire station from which I was elected to UCLA Medical Center. There I underwent eight hours of emergency surgery and survived the subsequent tonsillaught of LA reality television's media hounds. Five years and a dozen surgeries later, I'm back to some semblance of my original self. Warning. The following content may contain graphic imagery. Viewer discretion is advised. I won't show what she looked like after she got mauled since I don't want to get demonetized, but here's a blurred preview. Recovery picks are shown later in the video, stay tuned. What was going through your mind as you drove back down the mountain? For one thing, I didn't expect to make it down the mountain, so there was an error of the surreal about it, sort of like a crazed Disney ride, but mostly when I realized that I might indeed make it to the fire station, there was this enormous sense of elation. The pain must have been excruciating though, wasn't it, or were you in shock or something? Mercifully, one forgets the actual sensation, but I wrote about it at the time, knowing I wouldn't remember what it was like if I didn't get it down in the near term. The desire to survive overrides everything else, so the pain became superfluous to keeping myself alive. Seriously, many of the nerves in my face were severed in the attack, so there wasn't a specific pain, just an overweening one, and a whole lot of blood, the horror was the hard part, numbing, in fact. Just got mauled by a bear, better take a note. Dear diary, mood, oh wow wow wow wow. How did you deal with the whole ordeal after your first operation, emotionally, and physically? Well, I wrote a book, surprisingly, I didn't have the expected nightmares. Flashbacks, panic attacks at all one might have expected. Mostly, I was so stoked at the incredible job Dr. Lee had done on my reconstruction. I felt I'd be letting everyone down if I didn't do my damn test to heal and recover. Physically, I had to relearn how to speak, eat, even breathe properly, but through it all, I was motivated by wanting to let people know that if a little old lady could survive something like this, it's so good they. Is there anything you can compare that kind of pain to? No, having a baby was a piece of cake in comparison, maybe like being smacked in the head by an anvil? If I ever found myself being attacked by a bear, what advice would you give me? If it's a grizzly bear, play dead, if you're in California, it's a black bear, fight back with everything you've got because it's trying to kill you. If it's a polar bear, you're ducked. If it's brown, stay down. If it's black, attack, now confirmed to be true. If it's white, good night. Except that black bears can be black, red, brown, black and white, golden, tan, rust or mottled. Best to go by the state you're being attacked in, California has black bears. So if you're in California and a bear is eating you, your best fight back, if you're in the PNW or Montana where they also have grizzlies, things may become a bit more problematic. Edit, epic redundancy. Are you ducking with me? What's not true about the polar bear thing? Climate tree they can't climb, as a minute ago then I know this. Cool info, thanks for this. I'll remember that then next time I'm being mauled by a polar bear. So did I read correct that you have met Hunter S. Thompson, if so what was your impression of him? That the human body can survive more pharmaceutical assault than you ever thought possible. Thanks so much for doing this I actually heard about you before. What breed are your dogs? Deke was a massive and archaic as an Irish wolf and, as it turns out, the two very best breeds I could have had in this situation, as the massive instinctively goes for ground, they were bred to bait bears, and the wolfhound keeps it at bay. Irish wolfhounds should be classified as horses. Too bad they don't eat hay instead of roast beef. I'm morbidly curious could you see out of the eye that was hanging down your face? My eyeballer was not hanging down onto my face, but it was bitten and the other eyelid torn off. I only allowed myself a brief look into the rearview mirror, but it was so awful, I just laughed and kept driving. I just laughed and kept driving, h.o., l.y., shit, it beat the alternative. Funny how hysteria works as a defense mechanism, the human body has an amazing wall to live. Ha, that's so ducked, okay, hospital time. Goddamn you're awesome. I would imagine that people driving next to you would see the blood coming from your face. Did anyone try and stop and help? The road was more of a dirt trail than an actual road. I've never seen another vehicle up there in all the years I've lived here, so the chances I'd run into anyone was slim indeed. The adrenaline was going crazy, she probably drove like a goddamn maniac. Yep, also, I couldn't see anything, which made for a rollicking good time. Did you have that moment of seeing your life flash before your eyes? No, nor did I see geezus, but I knew that this was the moment of my death, and it pissed me off enormously, so much in fact, that it inspired me to fight back, which turned out to be the right decision, I think. You have so much grit, you seemed like such a wonderful, tough woman, and I am so thankful that you decided to share your story, thank you. And thanks so much for your kind words. I can imagine you're inside the bear's jaw, comma wow, I'm going to die, I'm actually going to- wait, what the duck? This is how I'm going to die, duck this shit, had oaken. Exactly. I would like to just say that you look fantastic in your after photos, and thank you for doing this ask me anything. Thank you so much, I owe it all to my fabulous surgeon, Dr. Kimberly Lee, and some very good lighting. How did it feel to have half your face hanging off? I woke up during surgery with part of my scalp face peeled back and it was a very strange experience but I was sedated, how was this for you, I mean, obviously it was painful, but anything else? It felt alien, cold, like it belonged to somebody else and I was just inside watching. How much were you medical bills? My crappy insurance company only covered about 20% of what I needed done, good girl, mauled by a bear then mauled by Blue Cross, so I'll be paying these bills off for the rest of my life. So far expenses have been about 300k and counting, that's horrible, WTF is living near bears considered a pre-existing condition or something. My policy doesn't cover dental, optical, or cosmetic, the major injuries I suffered, health insurance is the biggest scam on the planet, the company makes their money by denying their policy holders service. What was the drive to the fire station like for you? It was going through your head, and this may sound strange, but did you listen to music? It was like the wackiest Disney ride ever, I alternated between elation and despair, but figured what the heck, I'm not likely to live through this anyway, so here's my one chance to drive like a total dog head with impunity, fortunately, the dirt track was so remote, that the likelihood of running into anyone else was approaching no. Frankly, I expected to go carraining over the cliffside, so I just spun the wheel and stomped on the brakes as the spirit moved me, no music, just my maniacal laughter echoing off the canyon walls, colon. If you were to do something to prevent this from happening to you again, what would you do? When I'm outside now, I watch my six, it was something of a fluke, as black bears rarely attack human beings, but my tomboy girlfriends who like to run and bike in the backcountry learned a valuable lesson from this, we all make sure we go out with a dog or two now, and stay alert, personally, I spend a lot of time looking up into the trees for lions. I also live on a ranch and my mom always takes bare spray and bells when she goes hiking or running, shitskash, very wise, but I worry it just alerts them that dinner is coming, and with its own seasoning. What have you learned most from this experience? Do you have a different outlook on life because of this happening? To persist, as to the second part of your question, I'm still trying to figure that out, I a bit more wary in the wild places, which ruined some of the sanctity I used to find there, and I resent that, but mostly I'm the same person I've always been, just a bit lumpier. By a letter, thanks for doing and ask me anything, did you quit your job at the ranch? Has this changed your perspective of animals? Did you provoke the animal, or have any idea why it would attack you? One, my ranch is my job, I can't quit it, two I have to admit, the whole misadventure has made me a lot more wary of animals with big teeth, we tend to take for granted that they're not going to kill us, sometimes that's just not true, three I think it was a predatory attack by a desperate creature, it was probably hungry, disoriented from the recent wildfire, and taking a territorial stand, it certainly knew I was there, and it had been stalking me, probably figured I was an easier dinner than a deer, which has hooves and antlers and can outrun it, but little old ladies aren't supposed to fight back. How have you recovered physically, sorry to ask this but what specific injuries or damages did you actually suffer, BTW, you are awesome and spectacular, thanks, if you didn't know about the attack and saw me on the street, you probably wouldn't even look twice, Kimberly Lee is one hell of a good plastic surgeon, but I suffered some pretty gruesome injuries to my face and head, in fact, in the epics, you can't even tell I'm a human being, I've had doctors look at the picture and turn it around trying to figure out where the faces in it, basically what happened is that the bear charged, grabbed me by the ears and bit into my face, in doing so, it destroyed the bridge of my nose, tore off my ears, chewed out 14 teeth and much of my upper gums and palate, it also ripped off my lips and tore apart my face and scalp, Kimberly Lee estimated that she put over a thousand stitches into my head and face during the first surgery, me right after surgery, I am good.com link me today, I am good.com link Did it seem to go in slow motion or was it more like a quick motion of you sticking its eye with your thumb and getting away? Everything happened in real time, no distortions at all, I knew that should I survive this, I'd have one hell of a story to tell, so I made a conscious decision to note and remember every possible detail so I could write it all down if I made it out or there, and I did. I worked in the Eretucka back in 2008, I remember you, I'm glad you're doing well, that makes me happy. Thank you thank you thank you for the incredible job you guys did on me, the most humbling thing about this whole escapade is knowing that 100 brilliant and dedicated people came together as a team to save a literally faceless stranger, I am indebted to you all every time I'll look in a mirror, or look, period, that you see LA as my alma mater, my father was in in the first graduating class at UCLA med and my sister was in the class of 85, makes it all the sweeter, go Bruins. When you got to the fire station what did you say do, what did your dogs do once you called them over, and did they survive, thanks for doing this, and you look gorgeous, your surgeon must have been great. When I got to the fire station, my big concern was that when they saw me, they'd faint, so I decided to try fall over to, so I walked into the garage bay and yelled honey I'm home, then proceeded to give them every bit of personal information I could remember, name, blood type, shoe size, first off, they both lived, not that much worse for wear, once I called them, they came running, I didn't remember much after that, but there was a lot of fur and plant, and growling and yelping, they diverted the bear long enough for me to get up and escape, thank you, my surgeon, Kimberly Lee, MD, is a genius, so if anyone out there need a facelift, give her office a call and tell them I sent you, she's in Beverly Hills. Thanks for the ask me anything, how has your perspective on wildlife and protecting and the judangorous animals changed, do you still enjoy the outdoors? I still love the outdoors, but I'm a lot more cautious about my surroundings, some of the sanctity has been destroyed for me, and for that, I grieve, I'm still an avid advocate for wild things, but until they start paying property tax I'm going to assert my dominance. Ro, you made it to the end, you're a ducking beast, I'll cast you a deal, smash like and subscribe for more curated content moreite, it's free and that's a great price.