Warning: Article contains graphic content
A man who was mauled and almost died in a vicious grizzly bear attack recalled how he had to ‘pick his nose up off the floor’.
Lee Brooke had been on a hunting trip in Wyoming back in 2016 when the horrific incident happened; he had headed out to collect an elk he had killed the day before but ran into a grizzly bear that had also approached the elk carcass.
The grizzly bear attacked Lee and flung him to the ground, knocking him out - but Lee says when he came to, a voice inside told him to ‘fight back’.
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Incredibly, despite being under attack from the huge bear, Lee was able to use the knife he was carrying to stab the bear several times before it gave up and ran off.
Speaking on British breakfast show This Morning back in 2017, he said: “I woke up and she was sniffing me on the cheek. A voice in my head said, ‘don’t play dead’.
"I struck out with my left arm. She pulled back. I came up to my knees and started to stab her in the head with my knife, that was still in my hand.
“I knew she would come back and kill me. But I couldn’t see.”
In all the chaos, and with adrenaline coursing through his body, Lee says he had no idea how badly injured he had been - until he looked down and saw his nose on the floor.
"Well, I looked over on the right side of me and there on the ground was my nose and my moustache,” he said. “I didn’t have time to worry about that.”
Somewhat extraordinarily, Lee said: “I took my nose in my hand and put it in my pocket.”
Gravely injured, Lee knew he needed medical attention - and soon.
Lee shouted for help but his calls went unanswered for several hours until eventually a couple who had stopped for lunch heard him and raised the alarm.
He was rushed to hospital where he was placed in an induced coma, while medics tended to his injuries.
Skin was removed from his leg and used to patch up his face and parts of his scalp were used to rebuild his lip, while medics were able to keep his nose alive by attaching it to an artery in his arm.
But things could have been a lot worse - his wife Martha told This Morning: “It was a miracle escape. He could have easily lost his life and I could have easily lost my best friend, my husband.”
Claire Reid