I rather reckon it’s part of human nature to spend at least some amount of time pondering over your own mortality. I myself try not to pour too much thought into the eventual demise that awaits me, but that doesn’t mean I’ve given zero consideration to the hows, whys, and whens.
Now, it’s only natural that the vast majority of us like to picture ourselves passing away tucked up warm in our beds at a grand old age. A life well-lived, a suitable passing of the guard, a handover as necessary as it is inevitable… etc, etc, etc. You get the picture.
Far be it from me to throw a spanner into the wheels of your imagination, but the cold facts are that most of us won’t have the relative luxury of slipping quietly away to whatever awaits us next without even knowing it’s happening. Accidents, illnesses, bad luck and trouble – among other things – tend to conspire to ensure that an awful lot of folk die in ways they perhaps wouldn’t have wished.
That said, there are ways of dying and then there are ways of dying.
Death by brown bear
Back in 2011, a Russian woman suffered what can only be described as one of the most harrowing deaths imaginable when she was eaten alive by a bear… while on the phone to her mother.
Olga Moskalyova was only 19 when she set out on a countryside walk in eastern Siberia, Russia, in August of 2011.
She and her stepfather, Igor Tsyganenkov, decided to follow a route along a local river in the region of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. Tragically, they were set upon by a large brown mother bear.
What followed was about as harrowing a set of events as can possibly be described, though the picture authorities were able to build following the incident details that both Olga and Igor fought for their lives.
Olga, it’s said, was able to initially dodge the bear when it attacked, but watched helplessly as it overpowered her stepfather, crushing his skull and snapping his neck in the process.
The terrified teenager was able to call her mother, Tatiana, and ran 200 feet clear of the hulking predator, only for it to chase after her when it was done with Igor. It eventually grabbed hold of Olga’s leg and dragged her to the ground, where it violently mauled her as she called her mother several times.
Truly disturbing reports from the incident allege that when mom Tatiana answered the phone call, she could hear her daughter screaming: “Mum, the bear is eating me! Mum, it’s such agony. Mum, help!”
Called her mother
Tatiana told the Daily Mail that she initially believed it to be a prank call, until she heard “the sounds of a bear growling and chewing”.
“”I could have died then and there from shock,” the mother added. Tatiana immediately set about calling her husband (not knowing at this point that he was already dead) before ringing the authorities to sound the alarm.
In another phone call, Olga was heard saying: “Mum, the bears are back. She came back and brought her three babies.
“They’re… eating me.”
Eerily, Olga called again around an hour later, and her chilling final words were: “Mum, it’s not hurting any more. I don’t feel the pain. Forgive me for everything, I love you so much.”
Tatiana’s brother-in-law would arrive at the scene of the mauling alongside police half an hour after Olga’s last phone call. As per the Daily Mail, the bear was eating Igor at that time.
Hunters were later deployed to hunt and kill the bear and her cubs.