Montana man to return home from hospital weeks after grizzly bear bit off lower jaw

A Montana man who was mauled by a grizzly bear that bit off the front of his lower jaw is ready to return home after five weeks in a Utah hospital, a physician and his family said Friday during a news conference.

Rudy Noorlander, who answered most questions at the University of Utah hospital by writing on a white board, is looking forward to having a root beer float, reuniting with his Yorkshire terrier Sully, returning to the outdoors and maybe even being able to attend the rivalry football game next month between the Montana Grizzlies and his beloved Montana State Bobcats.

“And he's developed a whole new hatred toward the University of Montana,” his daughter Katelynn Noorlander Davis said, referring to the team's mascot.

Noorlander can speak briefly, but it hurts “a little,” he said. He will need speech therapy, his surgeon, Dr. Hilary McCrary said.