Desjarlais was jogging back to Key Lake's mining campsite when a lone wolf attacked him from a ditch on New Year's Eve 2004. Thankfully, his colleagues came to his aid when they spotted the incident from a shuttle bus that was taking them back to their campsite. The wolf subsequently fled into the wilderness. The colleagues took Desjarlais to a nearby medical facility which kept him until a helicopter ambulance airlifted him to Saskatoon's Royal University Hospital where he had an undergoing series of rabies treatment.