Some readers might find the images below disturbing.
A 20-YEAR-OLD AMERICAN man who was badly gored during a bull-running festival is out of intensive care and improving, a spokesman for the Clinic Hospital in western Salamanca said today.
Benjamin Miller, from Georgia, was out of danger and not likely to have to undergo any further operations, the spokesman said. He spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with hospital rules.
Miller suffered several wounds, including a 40-cm goring in the thigh, when he was caught by a fighting bull during a festival in the nearby town of Ciudad Rodrigo on Saturday.
Images showed Miller being repeatedly tossed by the bull and in obvious pain at being gored and pushed along the ground. Helpers eventually managed to pull him up from the street to safety.
“It’s not the worst injury I’ve seen, but it’s the biggest goring wound I’ve ever had to operate on,” Surgeon Enrique Crespo told The Associated Press.
Miller underwent a three-hour operation to repair damage to thighs, sphincter and back muscles, Crespo said.
Fiestas featuring bulls are common in Spain and many people are injured each year. Spain’s most famous bull-running event is in the San Fermin festival in Pamplona.
In the runs, hundreds of people test their bravery and speed by dashing ahead of bulls through the streets to a town’s bull ring.
Towns normally have special medical units ready to attend those injured in the festivals.
Ciudad Rodrigo town councilor Pedro Munoz said two other unidentified men — a man from Scotland and a Spaniard — had sustained less serious goring injuries during Saturday’s events.
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