January 8, 2015 at 3:22 p.m.
Long-term recovery from bear attack being helped along by friends, family and others
Long-term recovery from bear attack being helped along by friends, family and others
A man armed with nothing but a small knife, is attacked by a bear and lives to tell about it. Never has an encounter like this been documented in the annals of medicine... except maybe, if the folklore about how frontiersman Davey Crockett ‘kilt a bar, when he was only three” is to be believed.
For sure, Chisago Lakes area resident Brandon Johnson will forever be known as that guy who killed a quarter-ton animal with a five inch knife.
But the reality of Brandon Johnson’s tale is that he was just helping out a party of hunter friends, who were tracking two bears they had encountered.
He wasn’t even hunting when he suffered multiple catastrophic injuries in a bear attack, last fall in Pine County.
We caught up with Johnson after he had celebrated being alive to enjoy this New Year. He appears in good spirits and his sense of humor is surprisingly intact after this life-altering experience. (Just ask him about being interviewed by FOX news anchor Gretchen Carlson.)
Johnson will be seeing a physical therapist for at least another year, but he was able to switch to a physical therapy program in Wyoming, so at least he doesn’t have to go far for appointments.
He mentioned how amazed he was to finally be able to hold and lift a can of pop, and how heavy the can felt.
A couple weeks ago he was able to brush his own teeth, for the first time in months.
The professional trade that he’s been involved in since he was a kid, with his dad’s roofing company Ra-Den, isn’t going to see him on the payroll anytime soon.
The reality is that Johnson is looking at starting over, at the age of 44.
“It’s weird how much muscle strength you lose so fast,” he commented about his bedridden period.
His left arm is still in a sling and his thumb/hand is cased in a cast. The bear attack started with a large bite on the left side of his neck-shoulder. Both bones in his right arm were also broken as the bear took a bite out of his right forearm One of Johnson’s wrists was bent back and nearly torn off.
It’s still really hard to find a comfortable position to sleep for long, he says.
The memory of a classic starry night is clear, as Johnson recounts the black bear approaching him in the woods last fall. After he was knocked down, (he believes, or he may have fallen) things get dreamlike. He reached out wanting to touch the bear’s face and remembers wondering why it was so close to his own.
The next emotion he can recall is to fight for his life so his kids wouldn’t lose their dad.
Johnson began slashing away at the animal with a small knife he held. He clearly describes sticking his hand into the bear’s open mouth and stabbing the animal inside his throat.
Hunting party friends located him and helped him out of the woods to be strapped into a helicopter ambulance stretcher.
He winces in recalling seeing a medic holding a drill and hearing a spinning drill bit while he was strapped down and immobile. Helpless, he watched as the emergency responder drilled into his kneecap area, to place a small apparatus (like a grease zerk) to run a line directly into bone marrow. Later he was told they couldn’t go into either of Johnson’s arms due to the massive trauma.
Johnson doesn’t have the type of personality that struggles with why the universe put him in that spot and why he was spared. He mostly focuses on being extremely grateful for the additional time to enjoy with his kids, and fiancee Tracey.
Instead of letting the incredible bad luck of that night drag him down, he ticks off all the things that aligned to ensure that he lived.
For one; his friend had brought materials useful for a tourniquet, which normally he never carried. When cell phones weren’t working out in the woods, there was somebody on hand to call emergency responders from a local bait shop, well after midnight.
And, now Johnson is super appreciative of how his church, immediate family, relatives and friends have come forward to help. He said it’s kind of uncomfortable being the one who needs a hand, because he’s more used to being on the other end of things.
Brandon’s Bear Benefit, scheduled for January 17 at Lent Township Hall, is just one example of this. There’s a silent auction and other prizes donated. There will be games and assorted other vendors are bringing crafts and jewelry. Doors open at 5 p.m. Tickets are $45 or two for $80. So far about 300 tickets have been purchased. You can go to BBBfundraiser.com for details.
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