Man who had his face torn off by a bear describes how he managed to survive the horror attack

A fire chief who was savagely mauled by an eight-foot grizzly bear in Alaska has told how he had to clear debris from his throat to survive.

Wes Perkins, 65, who lost his teeth, tongue and jaw during the 2011 attack, said he and two friends were driving up a hill following the “good-sized bear.”

But suddenly, the beast ran out of a hole and charged at him, ripping off the lower half of his face before his friend and son shot him dead.

Perkins, a former fire chief for the city of Nome in Alaska, told Newsweek that he managed to stay alert during the near-deadly attack.

“I basically kept my airway open and had to get debris out of my airway, when I lost my tongue, my jaw and almost all my teeth,” Perkins said.

“So telling myself to work and never close my eyes or go unconscious was the main focus.”

The horrific attack took place in the Alaskan wilderness in 2011. Filmmaker and YouTuber Dannie Rose released a short film about Perkins’ experience.

In the video, Perkins, who was badly disfigured by the attack, said: “We were hunting bears. We did see some bears earlier in the day.

Perkins said the weather was bad: it was snowing a little and slightly cloudy. He said they saw a bear in the distance on the hill.

‘We went up and towards it and it disappeared. We eventually went around the hill and found the tracks and we were tracking the bear,” he said.

He added: “It was a few miles from us so we drove along the stretch following its tracks and then the bear disappeared.”

‘Ed was in front of me and I was right behind him. I stopped not noticing that the bear was only 70 feet away in a hole.

But suddenly the brown bear pounced on Perkins.

“I turned around and I saw the bear, full charge,” Perkins told the Anchorage Daily News in an earlier interview.

‘I just had time to say, ‘Oh shit!’ but I have [my] gun [halfway] off my back… When I turned around, the bear was this close. I didn’t have time to do anything.

Perkins, who was nearly mauled to death by the grizzly’s razor-like teeth, miraculously survived the brutal attack, saying in the video that he “remembers everything.”

He said: ‘I never lost consciousness. I had to open my airways because I had a lot of mud here, my face was all torn up, I lost my teeth, my tongue, my jaw. And so I stayed focused.

‘I knew I could hear so I could talk to Ed and Dan who were with me.’

Dan Stang said the bear had been hiding in the willows. He said that he started to walk away and when he looked back, the bear was on top of Wesley.

‘I look back and the bear is on top of me [Perkins]’ Dan Stang said in the video. He said that he immediately grabbed the gun from him and began shooting at the animal.

The bear then spun several times before starting to attack him. It was then that Stang’s son began shooting, eventually killing the beast.

“I probably saved Wes’s life and my son saved my life from the whole ordeal,” said Old Man Stang.

He said that when he turned to Perkins he saw that “his whole face fell off.”

He said he called his radio broadcast for help, and Perkins’ brother answered.

‘There was a bear attack. Wesley was devastated. He then told him exactly where in the desert they were located.

There was very little blood. Wesley was conscious,” he said. ‘[I told him] Wesley, you have to stay still, just keep your face in the snow.

Perkins said the snow helped numb what was left. [of his face]’.

“I was getting wet from the snow and starting to get cold,” said Perkins, who waited for nearly an hour before help arrived.

He added: “While I was staying there, I knew I was getting a little hypothermic. When the helicopter arrived, Perkins said she was able to walk to it with help.

“I was lucky to be able to walk, with his help, to the helicopter.”

Perkins was taken to a hospital in Nome before being transported to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

“He had no airway unless he had his head tilted to the side,” Perkins said. The bear had also done extensive damage to one of Perkins’ eyes.

Perkins spent the next four months in the hospital and underwent numerous operations.

Titanium plates were inserted into both cheeks and a titanium rib around his jaw during the facial reconstruction process.

They also did a fibula bone graft, where they took his left fibula from his lower leg and made a mandible for him.

Perkins said, “I was lucky to have a great surgical team.”

For several months, Perkins was unable to speak and could only communicate in writing.

Doctors told him that he may never be able to eat or drink by mouth again. And he became addicted to painkillers, having taken morphine and opiates during recovery.

Darcee Perkins, Perkins’s daughter, told Newsweek: “No person would have survived this or carried on today, I couldn’t have.” His will to survive and keep going, to stay positive.

More than ten years later, Perkins’s face has healed, though the scar remains, and he is able to live a happy life.

He still explores the wilderness, hunting moose and bear like he used to.

Perkins said: ‘[I] i do pretty much everything i used to but since i can’t shut my mouth i can’t swim and it’s hard to run or jog as my jaw bounces because i lost so much muscle in my jaw… but heck those are little things on the life. I do everything else.

Much of her time is spent helping other victims of maiming incidents through their recovery.

Perkins said, “I do what I can to return the favor and have always had a positive attitude.”