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Mountain lion attack on local man replays on TV
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More from LifestyleThe vicious mountain lion attack on longtime Camarillo resident Jim Hamm and his remarkable recovery will play out on TV this weekend — on Discovery's Animal Planet.
"After the Attack" airs at 4 p.m. today, 10 p.m. Sunday, and 1 and 5 a.m. Monday.
The show re-enacts the life-changing moment 13 months ago when Hamm, now 71, and his wife, Nell, now 68, were on a walk in the woods about 100 miles north of Fortuna. Residents of the Santa Rosa Valley for 45 years, the Hamms moved to Fortuna, in Humboldt County, about three years ago.
During their time in Ventura County, the couple were active and adventurous. They took scuba diving lessons and hiked. Nell was an adaptive aquatics instructor in the Conejo Recreation and Park District for 15 years. (Jim worked at Abex Aerospace Inc. in Oxnard for 38 years.)
The couple, wed 51 years, remained avid hikers after their move to Northern California.
It was near the end of a 10-mile hike in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, about 3 p.m. Jan. 23, 2007, when a mountain lion came from behind and attacked Jim, tearing into his scalp. Nell fought hard, beating and poking the big cat, which finally walked away.
"Nothing prepares you for what Jim and I went through," Nell said during an interview shortly after the attack.
Jim underwent four surgeries and has continued to recover well.
"It's just a miracle," Joanna Wullschleger, a longtime friend and former Santa Rosa Valley neighbor of the Hamms, said this week.
For the re-enactment for the Animal Planet show, the Hamms were flown to Montana to watch actors simulate the attack.
"Nell said it was hard," Wullschleger related. "To relive it wasn't great."
— From staff reports
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