01x09 - Lord, I'll see you in a minute.

[bunniefuu]

BROOKE: I like the woods,
I like the mountains.

I like the wilderness.
I like being on my own.

I like hunting. Anything to make
the most of mother nature.

Moose and elk and grizzly bear
and mountain lions,

they're going to hear you
and smell you first.

[g*nsh*t]

You have to become one of them.
In the woods.

NARRATOR: Early October, the Shoshone
National Forest in North Western Wyoming,

59-year-old outdoorsman Lee Brooke

just downed a 650-pound elk and returns
to camp with the animal's heart,

a trophy representing a year's worth
of food for his family.

BROOKE: My name is Lee Brooke,
I live in Pennsylvania.

Mom is a West Virginia hillbilly,
Dad was more a city type,

although he was the one
that encouraged us to be outdoors

and understand safety of firearms
and how to hunt.

How to fish. How to cook it.

- HUNTERS: Hey.
- BROOKE: Alright, alright. To the k*ll.

Well, I'm with three other fellas,

George and his brother Steve
and then a new hunter, Mike.

George and I have hunted this mountain

for most of the 30 years
we've been out there.

NEAL: My name is George Neal,
and Lee is one of my hunting partners.

We're basically brothers.

He'll do anything for me, and
he knows that I'll do anything for him.

NARRATOR: It's too dark
to retrieve the downed elk,

so Lee leaves a streamer
to mark the location.

In the morning light,
they'll return for the k*ll.

BROOKE: The plan was four of us
would walk out to the elk.

Two of them would continue
their hunt from that point,

Steve and I would butcher the elk
and haul it back to camp.

And we're both expecting to carry 100
to 150 pounds of meat on our back.

Now, I'm not gonna carry an ounce
more than I have to,

so the g*n went into a case.
So I left it at camp.

But I'll my deboning knife, which--

it's a kitchen knife I bought
at a yard sale.

NARRATOR: Although Lee and his friends
have hunted this mountain

countless times before, they never stop
appreciating its natural beauty .

We have great things
all over this country.

And one of those is, of course, Wyoming.
There's nothing greater.

This day was a warm day, actually,
it was in the mid-40s when we started out,

and we dressed in layers. And to get
an appreciation of this mountain,

it's 12 square miles of wilderness.

You can hunt out there for days
and never cover the same spot.

At the end of the trail, we got to
the meadow, and that's where we split up.

NARRATOR: George and Mike
head toward the top of the mountain

to continue their hunt,

while Lee and Steve split up to search
the lower area for the downed elk.

Once the elk is found, they will all meet
up at the site to help get the animal out.

I think the elk is about
midway on the mountain.

Well, I was a little wrong about that.
And two hours later, I hadn't found it.

Turns out the elk was
a little bit higher than I thought.

I did not take that into consideration
when I was giving these guys directions.

So, Steve was above me, George is out
of sight at this point, and he's hunting.

And all of a sudden,
I recognize where I'm at.

So I turned around, and right there it is,

I see the flag up on the mountain,
there's where my elk is.

Now, I'm ecstatic, and I start working
my way up the mountain.

And I have to reach out and steady myself
with my hand because it's that's steep.

The grass is soft from the melted frost,
so now, I'm very quiet.

And I can move a little faster.

NARRATOR:
Just as Lee reaches the downed elk,

he realizes the animal isn't
as he left it.

BROOKE: When I see the elk,
I recognize that it's turned around.

It's now facing downhill,
and it's covered up with brush.

The adrenaline shot to my head.
I am just so scared.

I know, right now,
I'm in the biggest danger of my life.

I automatically know
there's only one animal in the woods

that can move that,
and that's a grizzly bear.

And all of my knowledge about bears
and grizzly bears, in particular,

came flooding back,
and I was just stunned

that I'd allow myself
to walk into such a situation.

'Cause I know, even though I didn't see
the bear, I know the bear is right there.

I'd walked into
this lion's cage without thinking.

But once I recognized that,

I knew instinctually
that I was low man on the pole.

The bear is the king predator out there.

Even a hunter with a g*n,
the bear is king.

NARRATOR: The grizzly bear.

A top predator found in the northwestern
United States and Canada.

It can grow up to eight feet long
and weigh over 800 pounds.

Dr. Rae Win-Grant is a large carnivore
ecologist and bear researcher.

DR. WYNN-GRANT:
Grizzly bears, in terms of weight,

they are the largest land mammal
that we have in the lower 48 states.

They are huge.

They can be, you know, between 800
and 1,000 pounds at their heaviest,

and so much of that is muscle.
And just brute strength.

NARRATOR: With years of research
on these magnificent animals,

Dr. Grant knows Lee's situation is dire.

DR. WYNN-GRANT: This moved and
slightly manipulated carcass

signals imminent danger.

It is a big signal
that not only are animals

in this ecosystem aware of this k*ll,
but they've already been eating it.

When it comes for that
preparation for winter,

bears are entering a period that,
in ecology, we call hyperphagia.

And hyperphagia just means
this distinct period

where they are doing almost nothing
but eating, so fresh k*ll.

Plus, this period of hyperphagia,

when grizzly bears have
to eat a ton to fatten up for winter

equals an extra level of aggression,

where they are going to really try
to dominate any available food.

BROOKE: I needed to get away.
All I had was a little teeny knife.

I had nothing to attack this bear with,
to defend myself with.

And that's when I turned to leave.

And then out of my peripheral vision,

I see the bear coming and she got
a cub on either side of her.

So the adrenalin just shot again,
and I spin and I run.

I know, don't run.
But I was taken by surprise.

I was not thinking of the situation
I was approaching.

- [bear growls]
- But she's in full charge.

So then I jump down the mountain,
thinking I'll hit the ground

and jog to the right,
and the bear'll sh**t past me.

But my feet never touched the ground.

- [bear growls]
- [screams]

I truly can't imagine
that moment of impact.

We're talking about
a potentially 800-pound,

full grown adult grizzly bear
slamming into a human's body.

They can go over 25 miles
an hour at full speed.

I think even
a professional football player,

who's been hit
by other professional football players,

still wouldn't have an understanding
of what that impact feels like.

With no extra padding, no protection,
no helmet, nothing.

That impact would feel
like a freight train going full speed.

- [yells and grunts]
- BROOKE: So she goes to bite at my neck.

And she bit the backpack.
That is what saved my life.

'Cause the backpack is above my head.

Now, I'm like a rag doll in the mouth
of a dog, and she is tearing me up.

- [yells and grunts]
- At this point, I am knocked senseless.

DR. YANAGIHARA: It feels to me like
there's a life force that is the ocean.

Whenever I go out out
and swim for an hour,

whatever problems I had, it's all reset.

And certainly one needs a healthy respect
and needs to be prepared,

but just everything about it, I like.

NARRATOR: The Hawaiian islands.
6,500 square miles of tropical paradise

and home to thousands
of species of marine animals.

Dr. Angel Yanagihara,
avid swimmer and mother of three,

has been living on the island of Oahu
for more than half her life.

DR. YANAGIHARA:
My name is Dr. Angel Yanagihara.

I'm 61 and I live in Honolulu, Hawaii now.

I'm a military brat,
so we moved around a lot.

My father was an incredible water man,
so I grew up almost always in the water.

He said he taught me
to swim before I could walk.

I wanted to study marine biology,

and my father didn't think that
that was a good idea.

And he said, "Well, then, at least
be a chemist because that's respectable."

So, I double majored
in biology and chemistry.

NARRATOR: After years of intensive study,

- Angel completes her Ph.
- D
from the University of Hawaii.

The next say, she rises for one
of her favorite activities on the island.

An early morning swim at Kaimana Beach.

DR. YANAGIHARA:
Kaimana Beach is really nice

because there really
aren't any tourists there.

There's a nice route that you can easily
swim a mile, and the reefs are beautiful.

So as I approached the water's edge,

I notice an old woman walking,
and she looked straight at me,

and she said, "Are you going to swim?"

And I said, "Yes." She said, "Well,
don't swim today." And I said, "Why?"

And she pointed down at the sand, and
I saw a little clear blob, and she said,

"These are jellyfish.
Don't swim, swim another day."

And I thought,
"I've been stung by jellyfish before."

And I just thought, you know, "I'm just
going to swim, how bad could it be?"

NARRATOR: Despite the warning,
Angel enters the cool morning water.

DR. YANAGIHARA: The water was chilly,
but it wasn't too cold.

I felt like there's a little bit
of current, so when I was swimming out,

it's like you're super human
because each stroke,

you're going further than you should be.

So I took a note of it,
that there's a strong current going out.

When I come back,
I'm going to have to deal with that.

When I'm off shore swimming,
I really kinda clear my head

and just spend time observing
what's around me.

I really love the water,
and I've always been at home in water.

It is my happy place.

NARRATOR: But Angel's happy place
can be a dangerous place.

Dr. Isabel Gonzales practices medicine
in some of the most extreme locations

around the world and
knows local knowledge is crucial.

Any time that you do
any type of exercise outdoors,

you need to know what are the dangers?

Which, in this case, is could be
being attacked by something

or being caught by something
in the sea, such as shark,

stingrays, jellyfishes,
barracudas usually lurk around the shores.

I know a lot of really cool spaces
in the reefs,

and I know where some sharks hang out,
and some unicorn fish and turtles,

and so I just stop and see who's around
and what's going on.

So I'm swimming maybe 25 minutes.

Suddenly, I feel something on my neck.

I thought it was a fishing line,
a ghost fishing line,

'cause it felt like a prick,
like a needle, like a tiny hook.

So I tried to flick it off, but it was
like something kind of gooey and stringy.

I looked at my arms,
and I couldn't see anything.

I didn't see any tentacles,
I didn't see anything in the water,

but I felt burning pain, like electrical
shock, burning needles around my neck.

NARRATOR: Her symptoms clearly point to
the exact creature she's been warned of.

Jellyfish.

The telltale signs of a jellyfish sting,

it would be like immediate
pain in the area where it just stung you.

And it's just going to be irritation,
pain, swelling in the area.

If you get stung by a jellyfish,
get out of the water. [laughs]

The most important thing
is getting out of the water

because if there's one,
there's maybe more, right?

Or maybe that same one
can still sting you.

DR. YANAGIHARA: So I do a free dive
down to the sand, like, 15 feet

to get away from whatever's
on the surface.

But it was too dark for me to see,
and so then I came back up,

and everything that wasn't covered
with the Lycra was now stung.

It wasn't just one jellyfish that got me,
it was a whole slew of them.

NARRATOR: Not just any jellyfish,
the box jellyfish

This bell shaped marine
creature has descending tentacles

that can reach ten feet in length,
impacts one of the most potent venoms

in the animal kingdom.
It's also a fast swimmer,

capable of traveling four knots, a speed
faster than the average human diver.

DR. YANAGIHARA: The pain wasn't
going away. It was just getting worse.

I felt hot and cold and crampy,
and it just wasn't right.

NARRATOR: Over a half mile from shore,
Angel attempts to swim back.

But everywhere the tentacles touched her
burns with pain.

[gasping]

DR. YANAGIHARA: I felt that I am
just minutes away from drowning.

NARRATOR: Alone, off shore,

and in debilitating pain
from a box jellyfish sting,

Angel is on the verge of drowning.

DR. YANAGIHARA: I looked around
the shoreline, and there was no one.

There was no one on the beach,
no one swimming. No divers.

My first thought was that
I'd better kind of get myself sorted,

so that I can kind of deal
with whatever is going on.

I've had three children,
natural childbirth, I've been hit by a car

and had broken bones,
and nothing was like the pain that I felt.

I mean, this pain is
just indescribably bad.

So what's happening in her body right now,

the venom is finally getting through.
The venom was one percent porins.

Porins is the scientific name for
this enzyme that opens a hole in the cell.

Well, I like to describe it
kind of like a pinata

because you poke a hole
and then everything starts coming out,

rushing out of the cells.
Now, you have this havoc in your body.

I started to feel that I couldn't breathe.

My lungs were filling with fluid,
and I was wheezing.

I can't get a deep breath.

My muscles were like quivering,
and I feel very weak.

DR. GONZALES:
Box jellyfish stings have been deemed

one of the most dangerous
venoms in the world.

One jellyfish can actually k*ll 60 people.
The venom can cause cardiac arrest,

it can cause water
in your lungs, and it can also cause

neurological changes in your body.

So Angel is getting attacked
from all fronts.

I was too far out,
there was no one anywhere around.

I was 100 percent convinced
that this was it.

You had a good run, you didn't listen
to the lady on the beach.

I felt, "I'm going to die."

NARRATOR:
Deep in the wilderness of Wyoming,

hunter Lee Brooke has been attacked
and knocked unconscious by a grizzly bear.

I come to, I'm lying
in a fetal position on my right side,

and I can't see out in front of me.

I can only see a little spot about a foot
in diameter, and I don't see the bear.

And at that very moment, her whiskers
brushed my cheek, and she sniffed me.

In my mind,
I know when an animal smells you,

they can smell if you're dead or alive.

And if she smells I'm alive, she's going
to bite me, and it was at that moment,

I hear a voice tell me to fight back.
"Don't play dead, Lee, fight back."

My knife was trapped
underneath me in my right hand.

My left arm was laying across my chest,
so I slap her in the chest

with my left arm,
and I leave it there, so she'll bite it.

She bit my arm and pulled back.

And that encouraged me to shove my arm
down her throat, forcing a gag reflex.

I can't hear, I can't smell,
I have just a roaring in my ears.

That was when I reached up
with my knife hand

and stabbed her in the head three times.

And then she let me go,
and I jumped to my feet.

NARRATOR: Unable to see where the bear is,
Lee tries to escape the area.

And I look at the ground
on my left trying to find my bear

and trying to see, and I look on my right.

And there's my nose and my mustache.

The fact that there was a bite to the face
that occurred after the initial attack

suggests to me that this grizzly bear
really wanted to cause harm.

And that is different than some behaviors
that we see with grizzly bears

where they want to frighten and intimidate
and get a human to retreat from a space.

Here she was very deliberate
about causing a type of harm,

and yet not consuming the person.

She was frightened but she
really wanted to cause harm

to keep him from coming
back to the prey and her cubs.

BROOKE: I'm seeing my full nose,

all of this and my full mustache
just laying on the ground.

I am still intensely jacked up. I mean,
I know I am still in tremendous danger.

I'm still going to be added
to that elk pile if I don't get away.

NARRATOR: Severely injured,
Lee staggers away from the area.

The wounded grizzly bear is gone .

DR. WYNN-GRANT: Once it becomes injured,
it's more likely to reconsider,

is this fight necessary?

Especially when we have
a mother bear who has two cubs,

who has a strong will to survive.

She's easily going to
choose to leave this area,

leave the situation
rather than stay and continue a fight

where she might not survive.

NARRATOR: With only one working eye,
Lee struggles to find safety.

BROOKE: At this point,
I don't know the extent of my injuries

and I realize I can't get
out without help.

I can't walk two miles
through the woods without my vision.

And then I say,
"Lord, I can use a little help about now."

We're on a first name basis.

He knows my needs,
and I start yelling for help.

NARRATOR: Off the coast of Hawaii,

Angel Yanagihara has been bombarded
by box jellyfish stings.

She struggles to stay above water.

DR. YANAGIHARA:
I've been stung, I couldn't breathe,

and I felt very, very weak,

and now, things are just getting worse
and worse by the minute.

When you encounter something
that your body detects, like,

it could lead to death,
we have a fight or flight mechanism.

So this venom opens the cells to a point
that these fight or flight enzymes,

which are called catecholamines,
are being spilled out,

enzymes that make you feel anxious.
And that you're gonna die.

DR. YANAGIHARA:
And so, at that point, I remember

my father used to run
scenarios on us as kids,

just to see how we'd react, and
my father told me when things go sideways,

you're not allowed
to let yourself go. Right?

You're not allowed to start having
a little tantrum or anxiety attack,

you need to look around
to your environment,

look for ways to deal with what you have
to overcome the obstacle.

So now I just kind of went into this
muscle memory of the Lamaze breathing,

which is geared to getting you
through natural childbirth.

Without focusing on the pain,
you're focusing on the breathing.

So it's almost like a meditative state.

So I went to lay on my back and to open
my arms to drop them down into the water,

to really open my lungs to try to get air.

DR. GONZALES: Your head floats,
so if you position yourself in a way

that you are floating
with your airway open,

you have a better
probability of surviving.

DR. YANAGIHARA: And the goal was
just calm down, deal with the pain.

But at that point, I was
still convinced I was going to die.

NARRATOR: Angel tries to work
her breathing, but it's not enough.

The current pulls her further out.

DR. YANAGIHARA: My whole
body just felt quivering and weak.

I couldn't swim.
I realized I was out of options.

DR. GONZALES:
Because of the sheer exhaustion

of everything that is happening
in her body, she can't breathe correctly.

She can't swim correctly. So right now,
she could drown at any moment.

DR. YANAGIHARA: It's been
nearly 30 minutes since I was stung.

I stop looking at the shore
because I wasn't making progress,

I was going out instead of in.
Things looks pretty grim.

I got nothing else, nobody's gonna
come for me, we're done.

I was in such a degraded
state of consciousness,

I'm afraid of not seeing
my children again.

I'm afraid of, you know,
being one of those statistics

of accomplished swimmers who drown.

I have all of those things
kind of spinning in my mind.

I was convinced, full stop,
that there was no way out.

I was going to drown.
It's just a matter of time.

That's the last thing I remember.

- BROOKE: Help!
- NEAL: So I was halfway up the valley,

- and I can hear a yell.
- BROOKE: Help!

"Ah, Steve, you know, I think that's Lee.
He must have found the elk."

NARRATOR: George and Steve
head down the mountain

through the thick Wyoming woods,
following Lee's voice.

NEAL: So as I was coming across there,
I looked up, and I seen his elk.

So I hollered down to Lee,
"What you doing down there?"

I said, "Your elk's up here,"
and he said, "Get out of there."

He says, "There's bears there."
He said, "I've been mauled."

Instantly, I came up with my g*n,
put it on fire.

I seen the debris that the bear
had thrown onto the elk,

and I know the bears have been there.

So I cut underneath it, and as I was
going down in the direction Lee was at,

I come across my backpack,
and the backpack is completely tore apart.

This is made out of aluminum
air material, and the bear had--

You could see his bite teeth
went through it and broke it.

And I thought, "Man,"
and as I was looking,

and I happened to look down,
and I seen this funny thing,

I picked it up, and I said,
"Wow, that's a bear's nose."

So I picked it up,
and I hollered down to Lee,

I said, "Lee, did you cut
that bear's nose off?

And I looked again, and I thought,
"God, that looks like mustache.

That looks like Lee's. That's his lip."
And I thought,

"Oh, my God. Lee must be in bad shape."

And I put it in my pocket,

and I said, "Just a miracle
if it's ever to be used again

but they can't put it back on,
if we don't have it."

NARRATOR: g*ns at the ready,
George and Steve proceed cautiously

down the mountain towards Lee.

NEAL: And as I got down to Lee,
I couldn't believe my eyes

because that's all I could see.

That's all he had
on his face was his eyes.

NARRATOR: As Lee Brooke lies covered
in blood, his face severely d*sfigured

by the grizzly bear, George and Steve
are stunned by the extend of his injuries.

They take one look at me, and Steve says,
"Oh, Lordy, we're in trouble."

And so George tells Steve to go back
to camp and get a cell call out.

And that's when Steve left, he says,
"I know, Lee, we're gonna help you down,

we're gonna get down the mountain,
we're gonna be alright."

And I-- I let go,
it was George's responsibility now.

NARRATOR: George wrapped his shirt
around Lee to cover the exposed wounds.

NEAL: I put my hands, both hands
against his good shoulder,

and he would lean into me,
and we'd move his good leg.

BROOKE: George and I both thought
it was just a few hundred yards,

and it turns out he took me
almost a mile down the mountain.

All the while, knowing there was a bear
behind us. It's deep, dark woods.

NEAL: And I've looked up
and down the mountain,

just to make sure there was no bears
'cause now I'm starting to get into

what we call close quarters
because now, we're gonna get in,

and this bear can jump out behind
any piece of brush to get to you.

George has a g*n, and he's got two eyes.
George doesn't miss.

[laughs]

Grizzly bears can be ambush predators,

so even as George
is hauling Lee out of this space,

onward to safety,
they are still in imminent danger,

particularly from the grizzly bear that
caused the injuries in the first place.

It's hard to predict how angry she is,
how disturbed she is,

how threatened
she still continues to feel.

And they can ambush,
they can follow, they can track.

But it's-- Again, it's not to eat,
to k*ll and eat Lee,

but it's to really subdue
any feeling of threat.

NARRATOR: Lee and George
finally reach an opening in the forest.

NEAL: When I got down to the bottom,
there was a little open meadow,

and I thought, "Well, I don't know
if they can get a helicopter

in this one or not, but we can't
go any further." Lee is wasted.

He got me to lay down and put his vest
under my head, and he would talk to me.

NEAL: Oh, every two or three minutes,
I was shaking him,

I said, "Are you awake?"

You know, "You stay awake,"
'cause I didn't know, you know,

what was going on inside him.
He says, "You know what, George?

We've been into some pickles,

but I think this is probably
the worst one we've ever had."

He said, "You've always bailed me out."
And I said,

"Well, I guess that's what I'm for, Lee."

George and I have gotten
through many situations

and I had no doubt
we'd get through another one.

And so I went back to sleep.

NEAL: So we got down there
about a quarter after one.

So I sat there for another half an hour,
pretty soon another hour went by.

Well, it got to about four o'clock,
and nobody showed up.

And Lee's starting to shake a little bit,
and I looked up at the sky, and I thought,

"Well, my wife sometimes tell me,
'You don't have no feeling.'"

Well, I have feelings inside me,
but I am not gonna let you know it.

Probably deep down, I was scared.

Our time limit is running out.

I says,
"I don't know if Steve ever got out."

I don't know where these people are.

I don't know where Mike is. I said,
"You know, I, I-- We gotta get help."

NARRATOR: Off the coast of Hawaii,

avid swimmer Angel Yanagihara
sustains multiple box jellyfish stings.

The effects of the venom are so great
that she loses consciousness.

DR. YANAGIHARA: And I remember
the shock of hitting the sand,

and feeling, "I'm on the land."
I felt rough, and my body was on fire.

I was groggy and disoriented, and
it kind of woke me up, it snapped me back.

I can't tell you how long that took
or what that felt like getting to shore,

'cause I don't know how I made it
to shore. I just don't.

When she lost consciousness,

there's many things
that could be happening in her body.

She maybe is not getting enough oxygen
because she feels short of breath,

maybe she lowered her blood pressure,
that can also make you black out.

And then it could also be just the stress

and trauma
that she's going through right now.

And then the other thing
would be hypothermia,

so when you stop moving in water
that is colder than 33 Centigrades,

your body gets rid of heat 25 times
quicker than in air.

So very quickly, you're gonna become
hypothermic, even if you're unconscious,

if you're able to keep
your airway out of the water,

usually the tide will bring you in.

DR. YANAGIHARA: I remember trying to stand
up, and I felt like I weighed 500 pounds.

I just couldn't get myself up.

I thought first
if I could just get to this shower,

this burning pain I had everywhere
would be cooled off by the water

and then I could get help.

And I pulled off my Lycra top,
and everything went on fire even more.

And then I pulled down the fresh water,

cold shower,
and then it was just absolute horror.

It was like burning oil,
it was even worse.

NARRATOR: It's getting worse for
Angel because of nematocysts.

Microscopic venous cells
from the jellyfish.

So the tentacles
are filled with nematocysts.

So not all of them fire
when you have them on.

There are some that are actually touching
your skin, but haven't had the push

to actually open up
and give you the venom.

Cold water will activate that venom.

So all those nematocysts that haven't
fired yet, they are now firing.

So she is getting a
second wave of the venom.

DR. YANAGIHARA: I was still feeling
very woozy and dizzy,

and I felt like my heart was racing.

I had a little pocket
for a quarter in my Speedo,

and there was a pay phone by the aquarium.
But I could barely walk.

My legs were trembling,
my arms were trembling.

So somehow, I get to the pay phone.

I take the quarter from my Speedo
to make the call,

but then I realize I can't speak,

I'm wheezing too much,
so I see the aquarium glass,

and I figure I can tap on the glass,
at least it'll make a noise.

And the last thing I remember is
tapping the glass with the quarter.

The next thing I knew I was
in an ambulance in a bed,

being cared for by the EMTs.
So I don't know how I made it there.

Said, "Oh, you've been stung
by a box jellyfish."

and I had Saran wrap,
and meat tenderizer was there and vinegar.

And I thought, "What ridiculous kind
of medical intervention is this?"

DR. GONZALES: There are
a lot of folk remedies around.

Meat tenderizer has not
been proven to do any harm,

but also, it hasn't been
proven to do any good.

But vinegar is deactivating the venom.

It's not curing you, but it's making you
not get more venom in your system.

DR. YANAGIHARA: At that point,
I'm just like, grateful to be alive,

grateful that the EMTs were there.
Grateful that I'm feeling some relief,

and embarrassed by this whole calamity,
which was my own fault

for not having listened
in the first place to the good advice.

NARRATOR: With his best friend,
Lee, clinging to life

after a grizzly bear attack
and help nowhere to be found,

George fears
that he may have to leave Lee.

This was probably the toughest decision
I had out of the whole time,

bringing him off the mountain,
was-- I was gonna have to leave him.

And he says, "You know,
you do what yo gotta do, George."

And then I thought I heard a voice.
I stepped out in the open a little bit,

and I looked over on the ridge, and I seen
this little white hat bobbing up and down,

and I heard this little boy says,
"Keep yelling, we'll find you."

And it was like an angel
from heaven coming down.

That's how I felt.
And I said, "Well, hell...

I can see you! We're over here!"
[laughs]

And pretty soon, it was just like
an army coming out of the woods.

NARRATOR: Steve leads
a group of paramedics

and local game wardens from the woods.

While treating Lee's wounds,
one of the paramedics radios

their location to a Medevac team.

The back board got there,
they loaded me on,

they took such excellent care of me.

I was so relieved. I just--
Well, I didn't cry, but I just-- [sighs]

The whole burden had
just dropped off my shoulders.

They immediately started working on Lee.
The one EMT says, "You know what?"

He says, "You done everything right.
Right to the tee."

He says, "We couldn't have done
better than this." And I said,

"Well, you know, this is just the natural
instinct of the MacGyver that's in us."

'Cause we all have it.

NARRATOR: Hours later, a Medevac
helicopter lands in a clearing nearby.

BROOKE: The flight crew got out,
introduced themselves,

got me bundled up,
and of course, the flight medics,

they washed my nose off,

they cleaned all the bark
and dirt out of my nostrils,

and they put it in a plastic bag,
and they put it next to me on the gurney,

and down to Riverton,
the nearest hospital we went.

NARRATOR:
At the hospital in Riverton, Wyoming,

doctors determined that Lee's injuries are
so catastrophic, they must induce a coma.

I got intubated in Riverton.

And before they intubated me, one of
the nurses put a phone in my ear and said,

"You need to talk to your wife."

Not everybody hears that their husband's
been attacked by a grizzly bear.

And at that moment,
my world just turned upside down.

I didn't cry, I didn't fall apart,
I just sat down and talked with him.

I told Martha I was OK,
I loved her, and I'll talk to you later.

And I didn't speak
to her again for 32 days.

NARRATOR: With Lee in a coma, the doctors
transfer him to Swedish Medical Center

in Denver, Colorado,
which specializes in this type of injury.

Over the next 30 days, a team of renowned
surgeons use cutting edge techniques

in an attempt to save Lee's
life and rebuild his face.

- BROOKE: I have a 3
- D
printed image of my skull.

It was given to me by my doctors,
Lily Daniali and Benson Pulikkottil.

They made it to help them
in the reconstruction efforts.

The left orbital is broken here,

and of course,
this section is completely gone.

I was lying on my side like this,

and the bear rolled me over,
bit my nose, and ripped it off this way.

Nose bridge area is missing.

And then, of course,
I don't have a septum,

that's gone, I'll never have that back.

At one time, I had 10 doctors
and their assistants

and their support crew
working on me at one time.

And to see this and the amount of damage
I'd suffered, it's mind boggling.

It's just a miracle of modern science.

NARRATOR: After surviving
a box jellyfish attack,

Dr. Yanagihara recovers at home.

The process is slow and painful.

DR. YANAGIHARA: After three days
of brutal agony and a week total,

there was no sustained relief, my skin
became, you know, terribly inflamed,

all along these different tracts.
Around my neck was like rope burns,

I tried the topical steroids
and some other things.

And nothing worked, nothing worked.

I felt really curious,
what happened to me?

Why did it hurt so bad?
What's the physiology of this?

What's the biochemistry of the venom?

OK, you box jellyfish,
you brought the game to me.

So now, you know,
let me see what makes this tick.

NARRATOR: Following the incident,
Dr. Yanagihara dedicates her life

to studying the creature
that nearly k*lled her,

making breakthrough discoveries
that are crucial to public safety.

DR. GONZALES: There's not many researchers
in this particular species.

Angel has done amazing work
and established that the jellyfish

move with the lunar cycle.

Every month, eight to 10 days
after the full moon, along Waikiki,

these animals would show up, like
clockwork, exactly on the lunar calendar,

purposefully triggered
in the pre-dawn hours to spawn.

NARRATOR: Her research not only helps
prevent jellyfish stings but has led

to the creation of a topical
treatment currently used

by the US Navy Special Ops teams.

And for anyone who gets stung
by a jellyfish, the remedy is simple.

DR. YANAGIHARA:
The best first aid is two steps.

First, flood the sting site with vinegar
to inactivate these little capsules

so that they can no longer fire.
And that keeps things from getting worse.

Second, apply heat.


which is basically 112 to 115 Fahrenheit,

will irreversibly inhibit the venom
and change the course,

and now your body can
repair itself, and you can recover.

One of the things that concerns me
is when folks want to think of jellyfish

as nuisances or sinister,
or they're out to get me,

I was crossing paths with something that's
been going on for 600 million years.

Looking back on all that I know now,

I understand that I was
in the wrong place at the wrong time.

When I entered the water,
I was entering their world.

And I crossed their path,
so that was not their fault but mine.

NARRATOR: After Lee Brooke survives
the brutal grizzly attack,

doctors at Swedish Medical Center
in Colorado work to reattach Lee's nose

and upper lip.

BROOKE: When they got me stabilized,

the next thing was,
"What to do with the nose?"

It was all there with the upper lip,

though had been many hours
without a blood supply.

So they put it in my forearm
to create a blood supply.

Then they used medical leeches
to infuse the blood into the tissue.

NARRATOR: 32 days after being induced,
Lee is out of his coma.

But his recovery journey is far from over.

BROOKE: My nose, it was on my arm
for the next 18 months.

Still made mucous.

And of course, it was
a great conversation piece

when I would go out and visit people,

I would pull my sleeve up
and show off my nose down there.

NARRATOR: A year and a
half after the attack,

surgeons at Swedish Medical Center
perform a 24 hour marathon surgery,

successfully reattaching
Lee's nose to his face.

After the surgery where they placed
Lee's nose on his face,

Dr. Pulikkottil came out and spoke to me.

He felt that Lee was not going
to have his sense of smell.

That was a very difficult moment for me
because I know how much Lee likes

to be in the woods, and he likes to smell
the wet leaves and the rain.

So one day, when we were in his room,

I was eating an orange,
and I had peeled the orange.

And I asked him to close his eyes,
and I peeled that orange,

and I just gave the little peels
a squeeze, and the orange scents came out.

And I said,
"Breathe in, and what is that?"

And he took a big breath, and he said,
"That is an orange."

And I was, "Yes!"

NARRATOR: Thanks to his brother-in-law,
the first responders and surgeons,

Lee survived and is able
to enjoy an active life outdoors.

BROOKE: I had no question I would go back.

I've always had an appreciation
for grizzly bears,

I'm not angry at the grizzly bear.
I appreciate them, I enjoy watching them.

But complacency occurs when we relax
in a familiar environment.

And I was very familiar
with that mountain.

My honest reaction, truly,
is that I'm shocked he survived.

It is a miracle,

and I truly feel that there was
some slight nuance

to the events that happened, that saved
him from being k*lled immediately.

Humans are such a big threat to
grizzly bears in this part of the country,

largely because we share so many
of the same characteristics.

We love the same resources,
we want to spend time in the same places.

And humans are farming,
developing, building, living

and recreating in prime bear habitat.

Sometimes that cause direct interactions
with bears that can be harmful,

and sometimes it's quite indirect,
but can still cause problem for bears.

Examples of ways that humans can
peacefully coexist with grizzly bears

is when we are able to build
wildlife underpasses and overpasses,

so that roads are less of
a barrier to their movement.

There are all kinds of ways that people
living our lives negatively impact bears,

but there's also all kinds of ways
that we can live

and coexist peacefully with them.

I'm not one to shed tears or cry.
But I was raised to say, "Thank you."

So, throughout the coming summer,
after the attack, George,

of course, got me out hiking
in the woods of Pennsylvania.

And the fall time came.
And he packed up the camper.

And we made the trek back to Dubois,
and I got to meet the helicopter pilot.

I got to meet the emergency crew.
I got to meet the EMT that worked on me,

and I told them, "Thank you,"
first of all.

I wanted to thank them so much.

Well, that's unexpected.

For being there,
for giving me their Sunday.

I wanted them to know
that I made it thanks to their courage,

their professionalism.

In some ways, I'm glad it was me,
and not one of my hunting buddies.

We just passed that bear,
it could have been Steve,

it could have been George,
it could have been Mike,

and it could have been
a whole lot different outcome.

He's proud to wear
the scars of a grizzly.

That's what Lee will talk about the rest
of his life is how he beat the grizzly.

Even though she got the upper hand.

Or the upper lip.
[laughs]