SOLDOTNA, Alaska, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- A New York state man who is building a cabin in Alaska was able to drive to help after a brown bear mauled him during a fishing trip, his mother said.
William Pfendler, 37, told his mother that once he reached a hospital doctors had to spend hours reattaching much of his scalp, the Anchorage Daily News reported. Pfendler called his mother, Cindy, at her home in New York from the emergency room at Central Peninsula Hospital in Soldotna.
Pfendler said the bear attacked him Tuesday night near the Swanson River. State troopers said he also suffered injuries to his arms and legs.
But the worst damage was to the top of his head.
"He said he could feel the top of his head was off and he could feel his scalp, just flapping," Cindy Pfendler said.
Cindy Pfendler said her son, a Boonville, N.Y., resident who loves fishing, has spent the summer working on his cabin in Nikiski.
