Josh Berg Makes First Public Appearance After Bear Attack

Josh Berg continues to recover from the bear attack he suffered in July. The New City teen lost almost half his blood and required eight hours of surgery after the confrontation in a remote part of Alaska.

The 17-year-old regained enough strength and arrived with his parents at Thursday night’s Clarkstown Board of Education meeting as the student representative for Clarkstown South High School. thanked the superintendent, board members and the audience for their thoughts and prayers during the past three weeks. He received a standing ovation.  

“To me the fact that you’re sitting here tonight is a miracle,” Superintendent Margaret Keller-Cogan told Berg.

After the meeting, Berg spoke about the attack.

He was the first of seven boys in a line approaching a creek when he saw the bear. Berg started yelling then the bear began mauling him and he heard his skull crack. The bear bit his right arm, left leg and neck before going after another youth.

“I actually remember every moment,” Berg said. “I never lost consciousness from the moment I was attacked through the nine, nine and a half hours of waiting and I remember being rolled onto the operating table in O.R. in Anchorage.”

Once Berg arrived at the hospital, he underwent hours of surgery.

“I went through one eight-hour surgery,” explained Berg. “The doctors worked in sort of a sequence. The neurosurgeon went first then I had an ENT surgeon come and do cosmetic work and then an orthopedic surgeon do the rest of the work.”

Berg said he is receiving physical therapy. He cannot open his jaw all the way but he is regaining strength.

“I have a little discomfort in my head but that’s understandable I had two fractures and a craniotomy so all things considered, I’m feeling pretty well,” he said. “I tire a little easily after spending three weeks in a hospital.”

He plans to start classes on the first day of school, September 6.

Berg was with a group of seven students on a National Outdoor Leadership School Program (NOLS) in a remote part of Alaska. They were completing the final portion of the 30-day course. They were in the first day of traveling on their own without adult leadership when the attack occurred on July 23.