The Bear’s Embrace: A Story of Survival, by Patricia Van Tighem

Retrieved from: the library
(0375421319)

The author and her husband--a nurse and a doctor--went hiking in 1983 a happy-go-lucky young couple in their mid-20s. In the midst of their hike, they were attacked by a grizzly and were fortunate enough to make it to medical facilities in time for their lives to be saved. Unfortunately, this was just the beginning of their return to passably “normal” lives. The bear nearly destroyed both the carotid and the femoral arteries of her husband, but he eventually regained the use of all his limbs and had successful reconstruction of his jaw. Patricia has been through at least 20 surgeries to correct the damage done to her face, scalp and jaw since the attack. Each of these took a little more of her self away, until finally, almost 12 years later, she has to be hospitalized for depression. She receives ECT while there, and also is treated with something similar to aversion therapy where she is repeatedly told basically to “just get over it.” Meanwhile, her physical condition is deteriorating yet again.... This is a terribly painful, difficult book, but one that is impossible to stop reading.

It reminds me a great deal of Going to the Sun, by James McManus, one of my top five favorite books.