Even if human beings are the most intelligent among all living beings, they are still not immune to attack from wild animals. Human contact with bears has become more frequent as their habitat is being endangered by frequent deforestation. The sloth bear is one of the few bear species found in India, especially in the hilly areas of Southern Odisha. Bears are highly intelligent and omnivorous animals with long claws coupled with powerful shoulder. Here, we describe the tale of a poor tribal male's encounter with a sloth bear resulting in critical injuries to face, scalp, skull bone, with brain matter fungating-out of the skull. We immediately went for debridement of the, bulged-out contused brain matter and opted for delayed repair of scalp defect with antero-lateral thigh free-flap to save him from fatality along with an acceptable cosmetic repair of the defect.
Keywords: Bear mauling; eviscerating brain; polymicrobial infection.