Painless grizzly bites

Grizzly bears are coming out of winter dens. A new scientific study clearly verifies effectiveness of pepper spray, and Hungry Horse subscriber Lucille Guderski of Markesan, Wisc., is the latest person to ask for a rerun of my 1996 column on grizzly bite pain. So! Here it is —

How come so many people bitten by grizzly bears say it didn't hurt? The following is a result of non-grant research.

First, quoting from Jack Holterman's book "Place Names in Glacier."

"On September 1, 1907, the brothers (Penrose) made a camp at about the 7,000 foot level on top of the range southwest of Nyack. Close by was the camp of A.A. Stiles, the cartographer for the U.S. Geologic Survey. When Dr. Charles Penrose went out deer hunting with Stiles, he killed a young grizzly, only to be attacked and severely mauled by its mother on the thigh, breast, head and arm, with 30 tooth wounds in all. He managed to shoot the sow and a second cub escaped. With the aid of Stiles he got back to camp and spent three hours sterilizing and dressing his own wounds. The next day he and companions descended the 4,000 feet, with no trail, to the station at Nyack, where they received the hospitality of the stationmaster and his wife, then flagged the 9 p.m. train for the east.

"… The Doctor carefully recorded his adventure for the "Boone and Crockett Club" of Roosevelt and Grinnell, pointing out he had felt no pain, suffered no infection and no impairment, comparing his experience with that of David Livingston, who reported no pain when chewed on by a lion, and adding, "Every surgeon knows that acute traumatism is usually painless." (Mt. Penrose near Nyack is named after the griz victim in the above story.)

Next I called Louis Kis, former grizzly bear wrestler and head game warden, and asked, "When that big griz bit through your leg and broke the bones, how much did it hurt?" Lou said, "I didn't feel any pain, just sort of a warm feeling. Then I saw a bloody hole in my pants and thought I'd shot myself while the bear and I were tangled up. After standing around awhile I found three more holes and figured out the damn thing had nailed me… also discovered my leg was broken." Lou recalls talking to other bear bite victims who felt no pain when the big fangs sunk home, including Allan Nelson of Great Falls.

I recall talking to Roscoe Black after his attack by a griz up at Stoney Indian Pass. He was lying in the emergency room of the hospital leaking a little blood and body fluids from several nice round holes while he awaited treatment. We joked as I shot pictures, and he recalled the bear lying on top of him biting away and he felt the grizzly's heart beating against him. I figure, if a guy is listening to the bear's heart beating he must not be paying much attention to the biting.

Roscoe verified this later by telling me, "I didn't even sense pain when the first bite into my thigh, even though I saw flesh flying." Black was also bitten several times in the hand, arm and shoulder. His most painful moment was when one of the stretcher-bearers slipped and he fell about three feet onto the ground. He also noted, cleaning the wounds was not a fun time. Roscoe said after getting out of the hospital he developed bumps, mainly on his hand, which are diagnosed as the result of an "adrenaline rush."

Other victims told me of the bites not hurting… enough that I became convinced it was true. Next stop was a medic who has treated many victims of animal attacks as well as all kinds of accidents. He said there are many factors affecting pain from serious wounds. First of all, adrenaline reacts almost instantly to shut off awareness of pain. This factor creates situations where badly hurt people do astounding physical feats… sometimes even as they are actually dying. It also accounts for the awesome stories of wounded animals such as the grizzly that presses on attacks after suffering totally disabling gunshot wounds.

A second factor in reduction of pain is shock. Traumatic shock to the body also does things to a living animal or person that numbs the nervous system and this is often observed at the scene of severe injuries of all kind.

A third factor I'd not heard of before is the fact that most of the very sensitive nerve endings, which detect pain and relay that information to the brain, are in our skin. My friend said the further you get below the skin the less pain. Your intestines and bones have practically no pain-sensing ability. He said, "If the skin area of a stomach was deadened, we could take out an appendix with relatively little discomfort to the patient.

The last fella I talked to didn't get so much bitten as he did raked by the grizzly's claws, and that is "a whole 'nother smoke." This man had seven ripping type puncture wounds on his back, and every one of them was "almost unbearable pain." That fits with the sensitive skin factor.

This is all very interesting but 'Ol George is thankful the field research was done… by others.

(Note: Local Fish and Game Information Officer, John Fraley, in spring of 2008, finished an exciting book on Middle Fork history, called "Wild River Pioneers." A fascinating, detailed account of the Penrose bear attack of 1907 is there. The book should be out fairly soon. Watch for it.)

G. George Ostrom is a Kalispell resident and Hungry Horse News columnist.