A wild black bear gets special treatment from some Toronto-area veterinarians. 1:54 The story of a four-year-old black bear found paralyzed and sick near Fort Frances in December is being told by the man who nursed her back from near-death.

Michael Scheibler, known as the Bear Man of Emo, said he was contacted about the bear by a family who found it while grouse-hunting.

"It was a native family between Bergland and Morson who found the bear. They found her in this field. A fellow and his 12-year-old daughter were out grouse-hunting and she spotted this bear floundering in the field,” he said.

“The next morning they called MNR, and they said leave it there. They called the OPP and they said the same thing and then someone said, 'why don't you call the Bear Man in Emo. He will come and help’."

Scheibler said within two hours of receiving the call he “was kneeling by her side, praying for her, because I knew she only had at the most two hours left to live. "

He said he didn't think the bear was going to make it.

Hope, a black bear found paralyzed near Fort Frances, Ont., recovers at a wildlife sanctuary run by Michael Scheibler. (Supplied)

“Over the first three weeks, almost every time when I'd try to feed her she would take a half dozen spoonfuls and she would pass out and I'd have to shake her,” he said.

Scheibler said he spoon-fed the bear for the 42 days that it was with him.

“[The bear] was dealing with severe hypothermia, severe dehydration, and severe starvation — all three at once,” he continued.

“I have dealt with bears that were half-starved, or three-quarters-starved, but they were still able to walk and feed for themselves. This one had to be spoon-fed around the clock. She was so bad that her lips and her tongue were actually stuck together because she was so badly dehydrated. They were swollen. I had to literally pry through her mouth to get the first spoonful of meat and get her blood sugar back up. It took her three days to stop shivering.”

The bear, named Hope, was then taken to a bear sanctuary in Huntsville.

She made headlines Tuesday when she had a Magnetic Resonance Imaging scan — possibly the first-ever MRI given to a black bear in Canada.

Scheibler told CBC the bear is doing much better and is expected to be released from hospital. A spinal tap has revealed an infection, he said, but she has movement in her limbs.

He said he hopes the bear will be returned to him and will live in his sanctuary at Emo, but he hasn't heard anything official.

For more on this story, tune in to CBC radio’s Up North program, between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m., at 88.3 FM in Thunder Bay and 99.9 FM in Sudbury.