Faculty college students Brady Lowry, left, and Kendell Cummings, proper, had been injured in a bear assault in Cody, Wyoming. Cowboy State Each day
When a grizzly bear attacked his Northwest Faculty wrestling teammate Brady Lowry outdoors Cody, Wyoming on Saturday, Kendell Cummings didn’t hesitate to attempt to free his good friend from the bear’s clutches.
The bear had grabbed Lowry’s arm, shaking it till it fractured. Lowry curled up in a ball and however the bear continued its assault “biting my again, my butt, my shoulder,” he mentioned.
Cummings tried to disrupt the assault by yelling, throwing issues at it and grabbing its coat to aim to tug it off Lowry.
“I didn’t need to lose my good friend. It was unhealthy. There was huge ol’ bear on prime of him. I may have run and probably misplaced a good friend, or get him off and save him,” mentioned Cummings, from his hospital mattress in Billings, Montana.
In a flash, the bear turned on Cummings, relentlessly mauling his arms and head. For some purpose, the assault stopped, however the bear returned for a second assault.
Lowry, who's from Cedar Metropolis, feared Cummings was lifeless. Regardless of his personal accidents, Lowry climbed up a ridge to find cell service to name 911 for assist.
“He undoubtedly saved my life. If it wasn’t for him, if I used to be on my own, I'd not have made it off that mountain,” mentioned Lowry in an interview Monday.
Two different teammates on the outing to hunt for shed antlers, August Harrison of Vernal and Orrin Jackson from Kersey, Colorado, finally helped Cummings down the mountain, at instances carrying him, though Cummings additionally walked a part of the way in which.
Emergency dispatchers urged Harrison and Jackson to move to a secure place and watch for assist, however the concept of leaving Cummings alone on the mountainside was out of the query. As soon as they'd coordinated a location for a medical helicopter to land, they headed up the hill to seek out Cummings.
“I keep in mind getting on the telephone and I mentioned ‘You recognize, that’s our brother up there. We’re not leaving,’” Jackson mentioned as he hung up the telephone with the dispatcher.
Harrison mentioned he “began hauling butt up the mountain for Kendell and yelling his title. Ultimately, after some time, I heard him yell again at me and I seen that he was a bit farther up the mountain from me. So I ran as much as him and I grabbed him by the facet and I helped him get down the mountain. He was only a bloody mess. His head was painted crimson all over the place,” he mentioned.
Cummings wished to sit down for a second, so Harrison used the time to test the injuries to his neck and chest.
“He seemed OK, like we may get him to medical consideration in time. So I informed him ‘we’re gonna must rise up and stroll,’” Harrison mentioned.
At first, Cummings mentioned he didn’t need to stroll “so I informed him I'd carry him and I throw him over my shoulder,” Harrison mentioned.
“After some time he wished to stroll once more, so I sat him down and we walked some extra after which Orrin carried him for a bit. Then, we needed to hand him over a barbed wire fence,” Harrison.
All informed, the journey down the mountainside to the trailhead the place they'd parked earlier within the day was roughly 6 miles.
The group stayed collectively whereas ready for Park County Search and Rescue. Cummings was flown to Billings Clinic Hospital the place he has undergone a number of surgical procedures and stays hospitalized.
Requested about his teammates, Cummings mentioned, “They’re superior. I do know that every one of us would do something for one another. It didn’t matter who was up there.”
Lowry, who made it off the mountainside largely unassisted, was transported by ambulance to Cody Regional Hospital. He was later taken by ambulance to the identical Billings hospital as Cummings however was then launched.
Wildlife officers described the assaults as “a sudden, shock encounter with a grizzly bear.” Every of the wrestlers was carrying bear spray, however the assaults had been so sudden, none had time to deploy them, the wrestlers mentioned.
In keeping with the Wyoming Sport and Fish Division, Cummings and Lowry “encountered the bear at shut vary in heavy cowl ... west of the Bobcat Houlihan trailhead on the Shoshone Nationwide Forest.”
“They had been in a position to name 911 from close to the scene and Park County Search and Rescue rapidly responded,” the press launch states.
“With the help of a hunter within the space, an area resident and different members of their celebration, the 2 males had been in a position to attain the trailhead the place they met search and rescue and had been transported from the world,” in keeping with the assertion.
Dan Smith, Cody Area wildlife supervisor, mentioned landowners and hunters within the neighborhood of the assault mentioned there could also be 6 to 10 totally different bears shifting between agricultural fields and low-elevation slopes. An investigation is ongoing.
In keeping with the Nationwide Wildlife Federation, grizzly bears weigh upward of 700 kilos. Males are heavier than females and may weigh about 400 to 600 kilos. A big feminine can weigh 250 to 350 kilos within the lower-48 states, the federation’s web site states.
In keeping with the college’s web site, Lowry wrestles at 149 kilos whereas Cummings competes at 141 kilos.
Northwest Faculty wrestling coach Jim Zeigler mentioned each younger males skilled important puncture wounds, cuts and bruises within the assault. Cummings has dozens of staples on wounds on his face and head.
Upon his launch, Cummings will return to Evanston to get better, he mentioned. His care workforce is enormously involved concerning the risk that he'll develop an infection in his many wounds, Cummings mentioned.
Zeigler mentioned the occasions had been traumatic for all the wrestlers on the outing but additionally for his or her teammates.
“I’m simply going to proceed to like them and look out for them and ensure that they get better from this emotionally,” he mentioned.
Common season practices simply obtained underway, getting ready for the beginning of the wrestling season in early November.
Zeigler mentioned his larger concern is to help the bodily and emotional therapeutic of his workforce. A gathering was carried out Monday afternoon among the many wrestlers, school officers and college members to “give them a hug” and test on their wellbeing.
Shifting ahead, Zeigler mentioned he’ll take his cues from how his workforce responds to their exercises and training.
“You recognize, we’ll simply do it daily ... An important factor proper now's simply to like one another,” he mentioned.
“If there’s one thing incorrect, I can all the time sense that we’re extraordinarily shut. I imply, we are able to end one another’s sentences and ideas, and so I can have a look at them and so they know what I’m considering. We’ll be superb. We’ll transfer ahead,” he mentioned.
Saturday morning, after a exercise, the 4 wrestlers informed Zeigler they had been planning to move to Cody to hunt for antlers. Zeigler urged them to watch out, to put on blaze orange since searching season is underway and to hold bear spray.
They assured him, “We’re good, coach.”
“I place confidence in them as a result of I’ve been up there with them ... I’ve obtained to allow them to stay,” he mentioned, explaining he and workforce members camped within the Cody space a few weeks in the past.
Later within the day Saturday, whereas Zeigler was residence watching a soccer sport on TV, he obtained a telephone name informing him of the assaults. He left instantly for Billings as a result of he wished to be there for Lowry and Cummings, understanding it could be a number of hours earlier than their households may get to Billings. He was joined by different members of the wrestling workforce.
“I’m happy with them, simply the way in which they love one another, the way in which they protected one another, the way in which they caught collectively. I can’t think about the horror, the fear of it. I don’t assume they realized it till after it was over how horrifying it was. They simply did what they did, helped one another survive and so they lived to inform about it and I’m happy with them,” he mentioned.
Lowry, who attended Canyon View Excessive Faculty in Cedar Metropolis, received two Utah state championships throughout highschool.
He was the primary Falcons wrestler to win a state title for the college and the primary to wrestle in school, in keeping with the Cedar Metropolis Spectrum.
“I’m actually excited to proceed my wrestling profession in school,” Harrison mentioned.
Harrison additionally received a Utah state title whereas competing for Uintah Excessive Faculty in Vernal.
Northwest Faculty, a two-year school that serves about 900 college students, is situated 70 miles east of Yellowstone Nationwide Park in Powell, Wyoming.
Contributions to help the wrestlers and their households with medical and different associated bills are being accepted via the Northwest Faculty Basis.