Bear Attack Victim Left Horrifying Phone Message for Husband
Published at
iStock/Thinkstock(LAKE MARY, Fla.) — The Florida woman who was mauled by a bear while at home Saturday unintentionally left a nearly six-minute voicemail message on her husband’s phone that captures the voracity of the attack.
“There was just a voicemail of five minutes and 43 seconds of me screaming,” said Terri Frana, whose cell phone dialed her husband while she was in the throes of a black bear’s jaw Saturday evening.
“He didn’t answer,” she said.
Frana, of Lake Mary, Fla., was found collapsed to the ground inside her living room by her son, who dialed 911, moments after the attack by what she estimates was a 200-pound black bear.
“She came in screaming. She said a bear attacked her,” her son told the 911 operator.
Frana’s husband then grabbed the phone to tell the 911 operator his wife was attacked and that three bears had been in the family’s garage.
“She’s breathing,” Frank Frana said on the 911 call. “She’s just traumatized. She’s breathing and bleeding hard.”
Frana said she went to her garage on Saturday evening to grab bicycles for her children to ride down to their neighbor’s house when the attack happened.
As soon as the children left, Frana, 45, saw two bears in the driveway. She walked to the patio area where there were five bears eating trash that they had pulled out of the garage, her husband said.
Frana, who suffered wounds to her head and body, was released from the hospital Sunday and is recovering at home.
She said all she could think about once she was safely inside the home were here two other children, who were both still outside.
“As soon as they got in the house I knew they were safe,” Frana said. “I felt I could breathe and calm down and know this was a true miracle.”
Wildlife officials in Florida announced that they put down a seventh bear and are offering a reward for tips on anyone feeding bears in the area.
The attack on Franas happened in an area 10 miles from where another woman, 54-year-old Susan Chalfant, was mauled by a black bear while walking her dogs last December.
In the last five years, bear sightings in Florida have doubled to nearly 6,200 a year. Last summer, teenager Abigail Whetherall was mauled by a bear after unsuccessfully trying to play dead.
Black bear attacks on humans are highly unusual and occur mainly when a bear feels her cubs are threatened, according to the Department of Natural Resources.
People who are attacked by black bears are encouraged to stand their ground and not back away or play dead.
“One of biggest myths is play dead, don’t do that; they eat dead animals,” Police officer David Shultz told ABC News’ Linzie Janis Sunday. “If you see them, make a lot of noise from a safe distance. Never try to outrun, they will outrun, outclimb. Come in contact with one, you want to back up slowly and if he keeps coming at you just act as big as you can.”
Copyright 2014 ABC News Radio