35-year-old speaks out after grizzly bear attack: “It’s crazy how quickly this all happened”

A veteran speaks about her experiences after coming face to face with a grizzly bear protecting her cub and living to tell the tale.

Shayne Patrick Burke, a veteran who has survived deployments to Iraq and even a brain tumor, has been through a lot, but earlier this month he was honeymooning with his wife, Chloe Burke, in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming when he encountered a new kind of danger – a grizzly bear that weighed about 400 pounds and had 4-inch-long, sharp claws.

The Burkes sat down with ABC News’ Matt Gutman to speak exclusively about the harrowing encounter.

Shayne Patrick Burke recalled splitting up with Chloe Burke on a hike to track down a specific owl he wanted to find, but instead of finding the owl, he found himself right next to a grizzly bear.

“It was close enough to tell it was definitely a cub,” the 35-year-old said, adding that he froze at that moment.

“I tensed up and made the decision in such a terrible moment. It’s crazy how quickly it all happened. I don’t know. I just followed my pure instinct,” he said.

Shayne Patrick Burke said he had bear spray with him but didn’t have enough time to use it.

“I just thought, OK, I’m not going to be able to spray this animal like that. So I ducked down and took cover,” he said.

“She just bit both my legs, picked me up and kind of spun me around,” he continued. “She went for my head. But I had my hands clasped like that, protecting my arteries and my neck. She bit down and caught my left wrist and my right hand. I heard a pop and at that moment I thought in my head, Okay, she’s in my skull.”

But instead of biting Shayne Patrick Burke’s skull, the mother bear had bitten into his can of bear spray, and after taking a taste of it, the bear ran away.

“Then the pepper hit me and I thought you were still alive,” he said.

Shayne Patrick Burke was seriously injured in the attack but was able to climb up a hill and call his wife, who works as an emergency medical technician.

“I said, ‘I was attacked by a grizzly bear. I’m not sure how much damage there is yet,'” he recalled. “So she immediately went into paramedic mode and told me to improvise tourniquets.”

After answering her husband’s call, Chloe Burke said she didn’t know if she would ever hear from him again.

“I hung up without knowing if that was the last time I had spoken to my husband,” she said.

Eventually, park rangers found Shayne Patrick Burke and he said he remembered what he told them after the attack.

“I just said, ‘Please don’t kill the bear. She was only defending her cub,'” he said. “And they said, ‘That’s very admirable of you.'”

Park staff agreed that the grizzly bear did not need to be euthanized and at the end of the day, everyone survived.

“The surgery on the brain tumor went well. After that, I was fine. But you know, the universe decided to test me again,” said Shayne Patrick Burke about his recent near-death experience.

“Nobody starts their day thinking, ‘Today I’m going to get attacked by a bear.’ But it happened to us. I’m really thankful that my husband was prepared and had those wonderful instincts to save his life and get back to us,” added Chloe Burke.

Experts say Shayne Patrick Burke did everything right during the bear attack. If a grizzly bear attacks you, experts recommend playing dead by lying flat on your stomach, protecting your head and neck, and using bear spray if possible.