A Frederick County, Maryland, woman says she thought she was going to die when a bear attacked her while she was taking a routine walk near her home last month.
"It was utterly terrifying," Renee Levow said.
Levow was walking her two dogs close to her home near Rum Springs Road in Myersville — a walk she had taken hundreds of times before.
But this time, a black bear saw her dogs, rushed out of the woods and went after her.
"He stood up face to face with me with his claws out and I could've literally reached out and touched his nose. I saw his claws, nose and eyes and they were literally right in my face," Levow said.
The bear seriously injured her right eye and left a deep scratch across her scalp. She lost a portion of one ear.
"I was yelling and screaming and trying to look bigger and trying to deter everything that was going on. He had other plans," she said.
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Levow said the bear bit her leg twice — and it got worse.
"I was literally like a rag doll. He turned me in the other direction. He bit me twice in the scalp, face and head," she said. "I rolled over and played dead. He sniffed me and kind of gruffed and growled a little bit and then I didn’t hear him anymore."
She said she laid still on the ground for about 10 minutes until she was sure the bear had gone away.
Levow suffered nerve damage in her face and her leg, and her recovery could take months. She said she's scared to walk far from her home and now carries bear spray.
