Bay Area woman mauled by bear in Tahoe while fighting cancer

As a substitute, she noticed the again of a large bear, illuminated by the sunshine from the freezer, which it had ravaged. 

Inside seconds, Hoffmann-Curzi noticed a paw swipe at her.

“The subsequent factor I knew, I noticed the large paw and nothing else. I used to be simply being torn out,” she mentioned.

Hoffmann-Curzi screamed and screamed, throwing a drying quilt from the stairwell onto the bear, who, after his preliminary assault, turned again twice extra showing to wish to assault additional.

Inside moments, the screaming woke up Hoffmann-Curzi’s son and husband, who had been asleep in bedrooms close by. They got here dashing to her support, scaring the bear off. He left the way in which he got here in — via the unlocked entrance door. 

Hoffmann-Curzi believes the bear knew the cabin was occupied, as bears have impeccable sense of scent. She thinks he smelled avocados sitting on the ledge of the kitchen counter, drawing him into the home. All different meals was correctly saved and put away removed from the cabin’s floor ground. 

“Our place is meticulously set as much as forestall bears,” she mentioned. 

Hoffmann-Curzi was rushed to an area emergency room. She suffered extreme accidents to her face, requiring surgical procedure at UC Davis, in addition to lacerations to her arms, chest and again. 

She credit “dumb luck” — and her household’s well timed arrival  — along with her survival. 

“I actually, actually needs to be lifeless,” she mentioned, citing how shut the bear’s claws struck to her carotid artery. 

Hoffmann-Curzi not solely survived a bear assault  — she’s additionally battling Stage 4 Lymphoma that impacts her B-cells, that are liable for combating an infection. She does not consider her COVID-19 vaccines have labored given her situation, and her North Lake Tahoe house offered a needed escape as she isolates from the virus. 

She mentioned she’s observed bear assaults and residential intrusions in Tahoe turn out to be increasingly more frequent and largely blames people who do not correctly safe meals and trash for the issue. 

“I like wildlife. I like bears,” she mentioned. “However there are dangerous bears, identical to there are dangerous individuals. And dangerous bears have to be relocated, they have to be taken away.”

Patrick Foy with the California Division of Fish and Wildlife mentioned the company has opened a wildlife assault investigation on the mauling. 

“We attempt to get to the sufferer as shortly as potential, earlier than the physicians clear the injuries,” he mentioned. “Our goal is to swab into the precise chew wounds or scratch wounds to determine microscopic traces of DNA from the offending animal. What that helps us do is later determine if we are able to take away that attacking aggressive animal.”

If the offending animal is caught, it is going to be euthanized, he mentioned. 

Foy mentioned there have been quite a few bear house break-ins in latest months, and famous that there was one other bear assault in a Tahoe house in June. 

“That is taking place increasingly more incessantly within the Tahoe area,” he mentioned. 

Foy suggested at all times holding your doorways locked to forestall bears from breaking in. If a bear does enter your house, Fish and Wildlife recommends making loud noises and retreating from it as quick as potential right into a room with a door. As soon as you might be protected, name 911. 

Within the meantime, Hoffmann-Curzi is staying away from her Tahoe retreat. 

“The scary half is [the bear] will do it once more,” she mentioned. “And he’ll come to our home once more as a result of he is aware of there’s meals in it. This can be a harmful bear.”