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Bear Attack Victim Recalls Terrifying Night

MUNCY CREEK TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Two months after being attacked by a bear, a woman is now out of the hospital. Melinda Lebarron was in her backyard in Lycomin...

MUNCY CREEK TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- Two months after being attacked by a bear, a woman is now out of the hospital.

Melinda Lebarron was in her backyard in Lycoming County when that bear mauled her back in December.

"All of a sudden, she came out and around and then took me down, and that was it, and I thought, 'I'm done.'"

Lebarron describes the evening of December 12 as a night she won't ever forget.

She was in her backyard outside her home near Muncy to let her dog out. When she heard her dog growling and barking, she went to see what was wrong. That's when she saw a bear. She says the animal was on her before she could do anything.

“And I saw her claw. She was on me that quick, and I was down on the ground. And that was it. I couldn't get away from her. I couldn't do anything. I just knew I was done,” said Lebarron.

Lebarron goes on to recount the next terrifying moments as the bear hauled her 88 yards away from the house.

“She took me right straight across the road, down over the bank and into the field I guess is where they found my clothes. My pants and stuff had come off,” said Lebarron.

Lebarron says that was where the bear stopped.

“She sat beside me, and I just laid there as still as could be, and I thought, well, either she has the intentions of picking me back up and dragging me further or she was going to let me lay there,” said Lebarron.

The bear left and Lebarron was able to go back home and call for help.

“This whole ear was completely gone. It was just hanging there,” said Lebarron.

Now after two months in the hospital, she's recovering at home with her family and her dog, who is aptly named Bear.

She even got released a week early, saying she missed her family, and it's clear from the large “welcome home” sign posted outside her house, they missed her.

“Somebody saved me. Somebody's with me through all this. Who, I don't know who,” said Lebarron. “I do have a second chance on life. I shouldn't be here. That's the way I'm looking at it this.”

The Pennsylvania Game Commission believes the bear had cubs with her since they found two cubs in the area during their search for the bear and believe that provoked the attack.

The bear has not been put down as search teams did not find it.

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