SALT LAKE CITY — It was just one year and seven months ago that Rudy Noorlander thought that he might die as a grizzly bear ran at him as he attempted to help a father-son duo of hunters.
"Any sound, you know, I don't remember George yelling," Rudy recalled. "I don't remember him shooting his gun. I don't remember the bear growling. I don't remember hearing the bear running at me. I just remember hearing the crunch."
An experienced hunter and outdoorsman, Noorlander answered a call from a father and son who were bow hunting in Montana. They claimed to have hit a deer but were unable to track it down.
As he searched for the pair of hunters, Noorlander says he spooked a young bear and sent it running into the woods. However, that wasn't the last bear Rudy would see that day.
The hunting group began searching for the deer that the pair had shot the day before. Following crows in the sky, the men attempted to go down a hill to get a better look. That is when another bear started charging them.
"I remember him. He was like this coming at me," Rudy stated in front of a group of reporters at a press conference Friday morning. "I raised my gun cause I already had it in my hand and fired that shot, and it misfired. And I'm sure I rolled my eyes and said a few choice words."
The failed shot from his gun was the last action Noorlander was able to take before the bear reached him. "The next thing I remember is it had me by the jaw," he remembered. "And I think he picked me up off the ground, and I believe he picked me up off the ground because I could see the father running towards me while he had me by the jaw."
Despite having to undergo multiple surgeries and still feeling the impacts of the attack, Noorlander kept a good spirit at the conference, making the crowd and doctors laugh multiple times.
WATCH: Man keeps sense of humor following grizzly bear attack
Rudy also noted how the attack was just a matter of bad luck, "Probably I tell people it was all the unforeseen or all the wrong circumstances at all the right time."
He explained that he believed the first bear he had spooked was regularly stealing the food of the bear that attacked him. Because of this, Rudy says wildlife officials stopped looking for the bear the next day. "Because he was guarding a carcass and a stash of pine nuts. So they deemed that he was acting appropriately, that he wasn't just an aggressive be coming after people," he explained.
The team of doctors from the University of Utah Health explained what they did to reconstruct Rudy's jaw. From taking a part of his leg bone to act like a new jaw bone, to planning the surgery ahead of time to ensure he would be able to eat and drink again.
Watch: Meet the team of doctors who helped bear attack victim on the road to recovery
"Well, first, first thing I'd like to say I was a little disappointed in the beginning because I asked for titanium fangs and a titanium jaw so I could bite the bear back," Rudy said, garnering a large laugh from the audience.
Rudy stated that most of his inspiration during recovery came from spiritual sources. "But, that night I had a dream, one of 3 dreams that I remember very vividly," Noorlander recalled. "I was told and shown that, this was actually an answer to my prayer that I've been praying for a few years."
Noorlander explained that for years, he had worried about whether his outdoor business would survive. "So I've been praying to the heavenly father for help. I said, you know, I need help. I'm struggling. I need financial help."
"I was expecting to win the lottery or a sweepstakes, not get attacked by a bear," Rudy stated.
Doctors continued to explain the work that was done to Rudy's jaw. From creating a new lower lip with a material similar to a rubber band to ensuring that his new chin had something akin to facial hair for Rudy.
One thing each doctor spoke on was Rudy's positive attitude and the impact it had on them as healthcare workers. "You know he's he's always willing to share a story and and uh you know I think that positive attitude goes uh a long way and to helping you recover and then just kind of interacting with people again," Paul Tanner, an anaplastologist with University of Utah Health, said.
While Rudy is going on with his life and taking his positive attitude with him going forward, he did have one request of the audience. "... the last thing I remember they were cutting my pant legs off, and I was trying to reach into my pocket to get my truck keys out so they didn't get lost, and I still don't know where my truck keys are, so if you got my truck keys. Um, I could use them back; we had another set made, but I could always use a spare."
