The boy from Minnesota worried about capsizing as he canoed through the Canadian Northwest Territories. What he encountered was more terrifying than any white water
He estimates now, on a video call from his home in Duluth, Minnesota, that the time between stumbling across the bear and losing consciousness was 30-60 seconds. “It was super-short, but it had ripple effects through the rest of my life,” he says. Lying there on the hill, powerful images of loved ones flashed through his mind in quick succession.
territory of Nunavut, remaining in close contact with experts by phone and monitoring Messenger day and night for signs of infection.Photograph: Alex Messenger As long as Messenger remained stable, the priority was getting him a rabies shot within 12 days of the attack. But, after a gruelling five-day passage, his wounds started showing signs of infection. Dan improvised his first-ever surgery, cutting out the dying tissue – “like trying to cut through the tough parts of raw chicken”, says Messenger.
At Baker Lake, Messenger received 12 hours of intravenous antibiotics, before being flown south to Winnipeg for the first of five rabies shots. His parents drove through the night from the family home in Minnesota to pick him up. For six weeks, he took oral antibiotics and followed a programme of wound care management. Two months after the attack, the puncture on his right thigh had healed. He regained full motion a year later through personal training. “I was incredibly lucky,” he says.
Learning about bears and why they attack also helped him to process the trauma. “When you have a trauma, regardless of what it is, if you’re able to understand it, that can be a big step towards healing,” he says. “It’s taking this thing that your brain can’t figure out and compartmentalising it, so that it’s not just going to jump out at you.
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