Lady battling most cancers survives a bear assault in her Lake Tahoe cabin

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Laurel-Rose von Hoffmann-Curzi was woken up early on October 30 by a collection of thumping sounds downstairs in her household’s Tahoe Vista cabin.

At first she thought her son was being noisy, however as she got here down the steps she realized that there was a big bear rummaging in her freezer and throwing meals on the bottom.

It was nonetheless darkish, however the bear was illuminated by the sunshine from the freezer.

“In regards to the time I acknowledged that he was a bear, he acknowledged, I suppose, that I used to be an individual and got here charging at me,” the 66-year-old retired physician instructed CNN.

Von Hoffmann-Curzi says she did not actually see the bear cost as a result of all of it occurred so quick.

“I keep in mind seeing his large paw proper on my face and mainly nothing else,” she stated. “And I began feeling my physique being ripped aside.”

She stated she was “screaming and screaming and screaming” because the bear attacked.

The bear got here up the steps at her a second time and von Hoffmann-Curzi says she threw a quilt and a gown that landed on its head and spooked the animal.

The bear got here in direction of her a 3rd time however ran out of the home when von Hoffman-Curzi’s husband and son got here out of their rooms.

Her husband helped are inclined to her wounds whereas her son referred to as 911. She says assist arrived in lower than 10 minutes and he or she was rushed to the hospital.

Von Hoffman-Curzi says her face harm the worst and he or she was bleeding lots. However she additionally had scratches and different wounds on her neck, again, arm and different elements of her physique, together with a chew close to her left breast.

There was additionally a deep puncture wound on her stomach that she feared had ruptured her spleen, which she says would have been disastrous as a result of she goes by chemotherapy for lymphoma.

Von Hoffman-Curzi was transferred to the UC Davis Medical Middle in Sacramento for extra remedy. The surgeon there “did a spectacular job” stitching up her in depth facial accidents, she stated.

Medical doctors gave von Hoffmann-Curzi antibiotics in hopes of stopping infections and abscesses, as a result of she’s immunocompromised and since bears carry micro organism.

Von Hoffman-Curzi hopes she will not want further surgical procedures.

She lives in Orinda, California, within the Bay Space, and says she and her husband go to the cabin pretty recurrently, as a result of it is one of many few locations she will be able to go outdoors of her house.

Her chemotherapy has made her very prone to Covid-19, so it hasn’t been secure for her to be out and about throughout the pandemic regardless that she’s vaccinated.

“The one causes are docs appointments and chemotherapy,” she stated. “That is my social life goes to chemotherapy.”

She says they will not return till this bear is caught.

“It could be harmful for us as a result of the bear is aware of the cabin, is aware of there’s meals there, is aware of how you can get in [and] is unafraid of individuals,” she stated.

Capt. Patrick Foy with the California Division of Fish and Wildlife says authorities have arrange a lure on the cabin to attempt to catch the bear. In addition they took DNA samples from Von Hoffman-Curzi’s wounds and from contained in the cabin.

The bear should be euthanized in the event that they catch it, they usually’ll use the DNA info to ensure they’ve the proper one, Foy says. Every other bears they seize can be launched in a secure location.

California black bears are the one sort of bear that lives within the wild in California. An estimated 25,000 to 30,000 live in the state. Grownup females can weigh from 100 to 200 kilos and males are even greater, between 150 and 350 kilos.

Foy says that lots of the bears round Tahoe, which he described as an urban-rural interface, have turn into accustomed to people.

“When you have got bears which can be breaking into houses, these are bears which can be pretty habituated to those city areas, and that is the way in which they make a dwelling actually is by by pursuing human sources of meals,” he stated. “I do not imply people as a supply of meals, simply human sources of meals.”

He says this was the second bear assault on a human this 12 months.

Von Hoffmann-Curzi says they’d simply gotten to the cabin on Friday night time and hadn’t cooked or eaten any meals, or generated any trash.

She thinks the bear could have smelled some avocados that they introduced with them.

They did not lock their deadbolt that night time, von Hoffman-Curzi says, and the bear was capable of open the door with its paws.

“These bears are super-smart,” she stated.

Foy really helpful residents and guests to the world go to keepmewild.org for tips about how you can keep away from adverse encounters with bears and different wildlife. He stated they get reviews virtually day by day of bears entering into individuals’s houses or autos, entering into trash, busting open fowl feeders and inflicting different property harm whereas looking for meals.

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