ABC News(DENVER) — 911 calls capture a mother’s desperation as she phoned police for help after her 5-year-old daughter was attacked by a bear on Sunday.
“My daughter was just attacked by a small brown bear,” the mother says in the call. “I had to chase it through the yard.”
The child, identified by her father as Kimberly Cyr, had gone outside of her home in East Orchard Mesa in the predawn hours to investigate noises she believed were coming from a dog, her mother told authorities.
The mother heard screams about 2:30 a.m. outside her home, which is above the Colorado River Corridor in Grand Junction, and went outside to investigate, according to a news release by Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW).
That’s when she saw a bear dragging Kimberly, according to the release. The mother screamed at the bear, which then let her daughter go, the release said.
Kimberly was initially rushed to St. Mary’s Medical Center with serious injuries, but was later upgraded to fair condition, according to CPW.
The girl underwent a nearly three-hour surgery to repair soft tissue injuries caused by the bear’s teeth, according to Dr. Charles Breaux, the pediatric surgeon at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Grand Junction, Colorado. She has “hundreds” of stitches, but no fractures, Breaux said.
Breaux said Kimberly has been the “calmest person in the room” all day.
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