Woman recounts how bear ‘ripped this whole side of my face off’

A 71-year-old woman who was mauled in a bear attack in New Hampshire last month recounted the “horrible” experience, saying she mustered the strength to call for help despite suffering grievous injuries

Rogers managed to call 911 for help during the attack.

"I said to myself, 'You’ve got to do it, or you’re going to die right here,'" Rogers said

Apryl Rogers of Groton, New Hampshire, who is wheelchair-bound, came across the bear after it entered through an open screen door, authorities said shortly after the incident on July 17.

"After the bear entered the house, the door shut behind it, leaving it trapped inside," Kevin Jordan of the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department told ABC News.

Rogers accidentally blocked the bear's exit. In an effort to get out, the bear lashed out in a panic, causing lacerations to the woman's head and neck, police said.

Earlier this month, Rogers recalled the ordeal.

“That was a horrible experience. I never want to go through it again,” she told ABC affiliate WMUR-TV in Manchester, New Hampshire.

“I just said, 'Now what?'" Rogers said of when she saw the bear. “And he joined me. He sat right next to me,” she said of the moments before the attack.

“And he kept going like this,” she said, imitating the gesture of the bear rocking its head left and right. “And I don’t know why he was doing that. I think probably he was nervous."

The bear swiped at Rogers’s face, cutting her cheek, jaw, and scalp and fractured her neck, WMUR reported. She also lost her left eye, according to WMUR.

“It just about ripped this whole side of my face off,” Rogers told WMUR, pointing to the left side of her face.

Despite the horror of the experience, Rogers said she’ll keep laughing and living her life. “I am not going to let anything get me down. You know, it’s not worth it,” she said.

“I'd rather laugh than cry, and I do,” she said.