Hunter who had face ripped off by grizzly bear has face rebuilt by surgeons

Lee Brooke went through months of reconstructive surgery including a 24-hour procedure

Lee Brooke has been left unable to control tears (KDVR/Screengrab)

A man who had his nose and mouth torn off by a bear has had his face reconstructed by surgeons.

Lee Brooke was hunting for elk in the mountains near Dubois, Wyoming, when he encountered the grizzly struck in October 2016.

Having shot one of the creatures, he returned to the scene the following day to find the corpse was covered in debris - a sign the animal had been claimed by a bear.

As he turned around, the bear struck, tearing away at his face with its giant claws.

After briefly being knocked unconscious, the Pennsylvania native awoke to feel the creature sniffing his face and realised he was still in danger.

Pulling out a steak knife, he slashed at the bear, forcing it to retreat. But Mr Brooke was left severely injured and alone, as he had been separated from his group.

“I don’t know that I would have been brave enough to stab her if I could see her,” he told the KDVR news channel. “I had to lean in to stab her in the head. So I was this close to her nose.”

After hearing his cries for help, Mr Brooke’s brother-in-law George Neal found him and found his detached nose and moustache, which he placed in Mr Brooke’s pocket.

“I took my T-shirt off. I tried to keep him warm. He was kind of shaking,” Mr Brooke said.

After he was rushed to the Swedish Medical Centre in Englewood, Colorado, where he spent a month in a medically-induced coma.

While fighting to keep him alive, doctors also managed to preserve a section of Mr Brooke’s nose.

He is now able to speak using a trachea tube but can no longer control tears due to the damage the bear inflicted.

Doctors Lily Daniali and Benson Pulikkottil, part of the team who cared for Mr Brooke, said the patient went through months of reconstructive surgery, including one procedure which lasted 24 hours, as well as rehabilitation and psychological support for trauma.

“We didn’t just fix his body,” Dr Daniali said. “We really wanted to make sure that he recovered mentally.”

Doctors rebuilt the bones in Mr Brooke’s face using leg bone and plan to rebuild Mr Brooke’s face using cartilage from different body parts, including his rib and his ears.

“I don’t know how to say thank you,” Mr Brooke said.