Woman, 68, has half of face ripped off by bear in Sumatra bear mauling assault
WARNING, GRAPHIC CONTENT – The elderly woman was left fighting for her life after a vicious Indonesia bear attack on a coffee plantation in South Sumatra
The woman was attacked while on a coffee plantation(Image: Jam Press)
A woman had half her face ripped off by a bear in a horrific attack. The 68-year-old was mauled while on a coffee plantation. The animal clawed her face and dragged her along the ground for approximately 10 meters.
She was rushed to hospital where surgeons performed emergency reconstructive surgery to save her life. Doctors said she remained conscious throughout the terrifying ordeal despite sustaining devastating trauma to the left side of her face.
She was initially treated at a local facility before enduring an eight-hour transfer to hospital, where specialist teams fought to stabilise her injuries, according to reports.
Medics administered intravenous fluids, antibiotics and pain relief to control bleeding during the journey. On arrival at hospital, surgeons discovered she had suffered a full-thickness avulsion injury to the left side of her face, with extensive fractures to the cheekbone and upper jaw.
Her upper central teeth had been completely torn out, while her left eye was so badly damaged that doctors were forced to remove it. She suffered complete destruction of the eye muscles and tear duct system, leaving her permanently blind in one eye.
Emergency surgery was carried out under general anaesthetic to clean and reconstruct the contaminated wounds. Then, plastic surgeons began painstaking facial reconstruction.
Remarkably, doctors said the woman made a strong recovery following the attack. At a two-week follow-up appointment, they found that the wound was healing well with minimal swelling, allowing surgeons to remove her stitches.
Six weeks after surgery, CT scans confirmed successful healing of the facial fractures. By four months post-operation, the wound had fully healed and the woman had regained normal chewing and speech function despite the devastating extent of her injuries.
The attack took place in South Sumatra, Indonesia, and the case report was published recently in a medical journal.
The Daily Star previously reported on a tragic case where a student was shot six times after being caught up in military conflict. The poor woman has said the attack left her face “divided in two” resulting in her needing numerous to surgeries reconstruct her face.
Bah Median Ekue, a 22-year-old from Bamenda, Cameroon, was left for dead when armed military forces raided her family home when she was just 14. She was first shot in the leg before being shot five more times in the face by the military. The rest of Bah’s family were able to escape.
Doctors initially doubted Bah would survive as the lower part of her face was completely mutilated, but she underwent three facial reconstructions using skin from her leg to rebuild her face. After spending a year in hospital, Bah returned home but has been left with facial disfigurements. She has lost her sense of smell and can only see out of her right eye.
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