Victim of mountain lion attack in U.S. to leave hospital

A man who was attacked by amountain lion last month has recovered and will be released from a San Francisco hospital on Wednesday, the hospital said.

Photo: Victim of mountain lion attack in U.S. to leave hospital

Jim Hamm, 70, was walking around and talking with his wife, Nell, on Monday, said a spokeswoman for California Pacific Medical Center.

"He and his wife will pack his bags Tuesday night and be released Wednesday," spokeswoman Victoria Steiner said. "They're both incredible fighters."

A news conference at the hospital is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, at which Nell Hamm and her husband's doctor, Dr. Rudy Buntic, will discuss their ordeal.

A female mountain lion attacked Hamm while he and his wife were hiking in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park in northern California. Nell, 65, smashed the cat in the snout with a large branch and stabbed it with a pen to fend off the attack.

"At one point I was crying and screaming and I said, 'Honey, it's not working. It's not working, and I don't know what to do,"' she recalled after the attack. "And he said, 'There's a pen in my pocket. Get the pen and poke it in the eye."'

Hamm was airlifted to the San Francisco hospital Jan. 28 after his condition worsened at a facility in the city of Arcata, where he first underwent surgery.

Hamm underwent a procedure that took muscle tissue from one area of his body and moved it to his head, where his most severe injuries were. Hamm then had skin grafted on top of that, reports AP.

Game wardens later closed the park and shot and killed a pair of lions. Researchers identified one of them as the animal that attacked Hamm.