Disabled veteran’s quick thinking saved his life during a bear attack

Shayne Patrick Burke, disabled veteran, Army Reservist, stumbled across a bear cub. It wasn’t intentional on his part; he previously did the things he felt would avert a bear encounter. However, when he saw the bear cub, he knew that the mother wasn’t far away. The mother bear charged him, he deployed the bear spray, but it was too late. He placed his hands and arms around his neck as he knew that the bear would eventually go for this area to kill him. This act saved his life.

From Fox News:

His wife was waiting for him at the parking lot and he was trying to hurry back when he had a “really uncomfortable feeling. I was breaking branches, singing and talking to myself aloud. These are some things that can help prevent a ‘surprise encounter’ with a brown bear.'”

Then he noticed a bear cub in front of him. “I knew this wasn’t good,” he wrote, adding “I unholstered my bear spray and saw the mother bear charging. I stood my ground, shouted and attempted to deploy the bear spray but as I did she already closed the gap.”

With little time to think, he decided to lie on the ground on his stomach so the grizzly would attack his back instead of his front and interlocked his hands behind his neck to “protect my vitals.”

He said the bear bit him on the shoulder, legs, buttocks, slammed him to the ground and stood on his back before going for his neck for a “kill bite.”

“I still had my hands interlocked and my arms protecting my carotid arteries,” he wrote. “I never let go of the bear spray can. As she bit my hands in the back of my neck she simultaneously bit the bear spray can and it exploded in her mouth. This is what saved my life from the initial attack. I heard her run away, I looked up and instantly ran in the opposite direction up a hill.”

When hurrying back to his wife, he texted her “attacked” and applied improvised tourniquets to his legs.

As for the women who feel that they would much rather meet a bear, rather than a man, while alone in the woods? They should tell that to Shayne Patrick.

Additional Reading:

Stimson, B. (2024, May 24). Disabled veteran who survived attack by grizzly bear recalls when instincts kicked in. Fox News. Link.

Category: Veterans in the news