Special V Day For California Sweethearts

(CBS/AP)  After battling a mountain lion, enduring multiple surgeries and spending weeks in the hospital, 70-year-old Jim Hamm was judged well enough to go home Wednesday - just in time to spend Valentine's Day with the love of his life.

That's Nell Hamm, 65, his wife and the woman who beat a mountain lion with a large branch, and stabbed it with a pen, until it finally released its jaws from her husband's head.

"I'm very thankful that Jim is alive," said Nell Hamm. "At the time of the attack, I couldn't see how he was going to survive this."

Jim and Nell Hamm have been married for 50 years and celebrated their wedding anniversary on Feb. 9th, while Jim was still in the hospital recuperating from numerous operations to repair the damage from the mountain lion.

Jim Hamm still has a long road to recovery - perhaps as much as a year.

He won't have to check back in the hospital but while on the mend at home in Fortuna, Calif., Hamm will be in physical therapy to improve the health of his arms and hands, which are still stiff and swollen.

Dr. Rudy Buntic, at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, says Jim Hamm had "made a steady improvement" since January 24th when a female mountain lion attacked him while he was hiking with his wife at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park in Humboldt County, California.

Hamm was airlifted to the San Francisco hospital Jan. 28 after he showed signs of a dangerous blood infection at a facility in Arcata, where he first underwent surgery.

A team of surgeons led by Buntic moved muscle tissue taken from Hamm's leg to the back of his head, where he had suffered the most severe bites and scratches, then grafted skin on top.

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

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Nell Hamm talked about her husband's long, painful ordeal, in which doctors used muscle from his back to replace 48 square inches of scalp lost to the lion.

Jim has said that the mountain lion, roughly about 70 pounds, showed no fear when attacking him in what was the 16th mountain lion attack on a human in 117 years.

As he recuperated, Jim Hamm walked the halls of the hospital and read cards from well-wishers all over the country.

Mrs. Hamm acknowledges that it was scary, even after her husband was safe at the hospital.

"You can't see what I saw," said Mrs. Hamm, "and know a person is going to come through this thing."

"These are two amazing individuals," said Dr. Buntic, announcing that Jim Hamm would be able to go home on Valentine's Day – less than a month after the attack. "If this happened 25-hundred years ago, this would be a story of Greek mythology. These people fought off a lion. They are incredible people."

Mrs. Hamm remains modest about her bravery when it counted.

"I think with this both of us just fought for his life," she said. "You would have done the same if a loved one was there. You just do what you have to do."

"Knowing Jim," she added, "it won't be long before he's walking around the neighborhood."

[hedonist3]

A "rouge"??

[slfrighteous]

knyghtwolf,
These people did not arm themselves, they did not go after the lions themselves, they did not deserve your ill wishes! The odds of someone being attacked by a mtn lion are so few! "what was the 16th mountain lion attack on a human in 117 years" I personally have a wild fox living in my yard and adore her. You just make sure to never venture out of the safety of your home, since you are a human animal and should never ever enjoy any kind of wilderness. You my dear seem to be the closed minded one.
P.S. You are more likely to encounter a personal tradgedy in your home than for a mountain lion to attack you while hiking in the wilderness.

[knyghtwolf]

nolalou & SlfRighteous, go back and re-read what I felt was the injustice here, first if they want to enjoy nature, that's not a problem, but they wander off the trail and go into territory that was NOT part of regular park trail. Second, our first reaction is to HUNT & KILL, no matter what it is, or what it did, or even if it just shows up in our yard. Look at all the roadkill that is present on a daily basis. I was upset that they felt that killing was the ONLY solution. Where I live now, I have found a coyote den under my home, do you think for one second that I am going to call animal control, not in this life time. We kill so many so much on our highways that we are insensitive to death period. It was a female mountain lion, and she was probably protecting her territory, as anyone would if someone threatened you on YOUR property. I said I had no sympathy for the man, and IF the same thing were to happen to me, I would feel the same then too.

[knyghtwolf]

Enjoying nature is one thing, going where wild animals live is another, poor choice on their part does not constitute KILLING innocent animals. Heartless? Get over myself? Why is pointing out the obvious to ignorant people make me heartless? My place is where it is because of federal laws about living where ever you want. When the day comes that the earth decides to right itself, I hope you and a few of your other idiot self rightous potientates are the very LAST to go. Sometimes people like you have such a narrow mind, if someone took your brain out and laid it on the edge of a razor blade, it would be like a BB rolling down a four lane highway. So if you like name calling for my beliefs, taste some of your own medicine.

[slfrighteous]

newster1,
So I suppose if you take a walk in an urban jungle you deserve to be robbed and beaten? If you leave the comfort of your home you deserve to be victimized in any way? And all of that makes you an "idiot"? Nice compassion you have going. I believe in Karma myself, so I hope you don't do anything that may seem idiotic to someone else, like leave your home, because danger lurks around every corner.

[nolalou]

knyghtwol,They were in a state park on a hiking path used by hundreds of people. It was not a development, it was a natural park setting. You are a heartless cruel idiot! I dont like resorting to name calling, but I've never seen a more stupid comment than yours!

[slfrighteous]

knyghtwolf, you really are something! Just because a couple of human animals wanted to enjoy nature, they deserved to be mauled? So I suppose that they should have just stayed in the safety of their home behind a computer monitor while condemning the human race. Get over yourself and realize as human animals some of us enjoy nature and don't delibrately try to destroy it. At one time your own home was a spot of wilderness so you are just as guilty as the rest of the human animals. As for this couple, Good job! You are the fittest!

[knyghtwolf]

It was in several other articles pertaining to this story. The couple was warned twice by rangers not to go anywhere but the prescribed trail, and eventually THREE lions were disposed of, the third one showing what appeared to be "human blood". The third one was shot a few days later. I belong to several animal rights groups and I also got information from their sources as well.

[knyghtwolf]

Careful my friend, your religiosity will show your illusional dominion of nature based on ingrained behaviors of human thinking that we rule the planet. Todays reasonings are founded on structurations of premptive thought that is based on the boxed teachings of a pre & post-industrial capitalistic society subscribing to industrial-fueled religions that nature is not a problem, but surely it WILL provide the most natural solution, and please don't forget that even though that "cat" was not human, it was still a life that has as much right to live as you do, don't forget, humans are also classified as "animals" too. Happy Valentines Day!!!!

[upsilon101]

knyghtwolf where did you get your info??? I believe a "pair" means TWO not THREE. And when and where were the couple "warned" about not walking there...from what I read in previous articles it was the wife that warned others not to go there.