With a bear hovering nearby, a panic-stricken Lynn Semler called 911 at 8:33 p.m. Friday.

"My husband has been attacked by a bear. He's at the bottom of the driveway. I don't know what to do."

For the next 18 minutes, while Semler and her husband, John Chelminiak, 58, waited for an ambulance, she alternated talking with the dispatcher and with her husband.

Chelminiak was in serious but stable condition this morning at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle after a bear attacked him as he walked his dog. He had apparently just left the Bellevue couple's vacation home at Lake Wenatchee when he was attacked.

"He said he's dying," Semler told a dispatcher.

She yelled at her daughter, Megan, to close the door then said, "Oh, my God. Hurry, hurry. I can tell he's curled up. Oh, God, his head is all bashed up."

The dispatcher asked Semler if she could see the bear. She said no and tried to console her husband. "Honey, I love you so much. Honey, just keep breathing, stay calm."

Then the bear came into view.

"I see the animal," Semler said. "He is down a block, one house further down the road."

She estimated the bear was 120 feet away.

"I'm 50 feet from the house," Semler told the dispatcher. "I'd like to pack him up to the house but I can't."

The dispatcher asked if she could still see the bear.

"I see it," she said. "It is walking across the street right now."

Semler yelled for neighbors to help, but none heard her. She and her husband were alone at the end of the driveway.

"It seems like it may be coming closer," she said. "The bear is still lingering. I can't leave my husband because I'm worried about the bear coming back."

About eight minutes into the call, she said she did not see the bear and told her husband, "Just keep breathing, honey, just keep breathing."

Eighteen minutes after being dispatched, an aid crew arrived.

"Oh, here they come; I'm so scared," Semler said.

The call ended at 8:49 a.m.

Chelminiak was treated at Central Washington Hospital, then was transported to Harborview. State Fish and Wildlife agent Doug Ward said Saturday that Chelminiak's injuries are not life-threatening but he was transferred to Harborview where doctors specialize in reconstructive surgery.

KOMO-TV in Seattle reported that Chelminiak was in surgery for most of the day Saturday.

Chelminiak is a Bellevue city councilman.

Source: Dee Riggs, a staff writer for The Wenatchee World.