Bulls Reign in Spain: Two Gored During Annual Fiesta Run
Two people were gored Thursday during a tense and dangerous second running of the bulls at Spain's famed San Fermin fiesta, and at least five other people were hospitalized after falling or being trampled by the hulking beasts, officials said.
Thousands took part in the dash to keep ahead of six fighting bulls and six bell-tinkling steers tasked with keeping the beasts together along the 930-yard course from a holding pen to the northern town's bullring.
Leaving my personal distaste for bullfighting aside, this isn't any different from any other adrenaline junkie pursuit, be it rock-climbing, sky-diving, or bungie-jumping. Yes, it's not safe. Yes, there's the chance you could get hurt - that's the appeal for those that thrive on endorphins. If you want safe, stay home. That folks get gored while running with the bulls is an inevitable fact - although fatalities are rare (last year's running saw the first fatality in 15 years).
But this?
The unidentified 22-year-old man sustained a ripped scrotum from a horn injury, El Diario de Navarra said. He received a stitch at the bullring from emergency workers and was hospitalized, according to the newspaper, which did not list his hometown.
[Jay cringes and curls into a fetal position]
Man, that's something you don't want to post on Facebook, eh?
That is all.
Thanks to eagle-eyed brad_in_ma for spotting that and taking the time to send it to me!
9 comments:
Is BULL. Is not SAFE.
That happened to a friend of mine in the Navy while we were stationed in Spain.
I was at the same running as he was (a relatively small one in Arcos), but I stayed on the other side of the barriers with my kids, rather than run in the streets with 2,000 lb self-propelled lethal weapons.
My friend was caught from behind (literally) by a bull charging with his head down. The horn did serious damage to his colon, which required medivac to the states to repair. He showed back up at the command about a year later. It took them (IIRC) 6 surgeries to repair him to the point that he could get around without a colostomy bag, but he still had some pretty severe medical issues that would most likely be lifelong.
Strangely, he never expressed any interest in running with the bulls again after returning to Spain.
By chance, did the unidentified man happen to say something like, "hold my beer... y'all watch this!" before his happy sack got ventilated?
Some days, you get the sirloin; some days the sirloin gets you.
"Hey! Wanna see my stitches?"
Yeah, a little tear in the scrootum isn't so bad. As long as that was all if was. I've hurt myself as bad shaving.
If it was like Chief Curt's buddy and kept going up to the colon, that would be bad. Or a brush against any of the sensitive area in that region with blunt or other force. That would be bad.
Bulls or balls running ?
Darwin ALWAYS wins.
w/v = entibbi What word makes terrorist wish they were running with the bulls?
I didn't actually see it happen because of the crowd, but I did see the commotion.
Basically, he and another sailor friend were standing in the street right outside the gates where the bulls come out. They didn't warn anyone, they just opened the gates and the bulls came barreling out. This was at the very beginning of the route so they were still fresh and full of piss and vinegar.
The way he explained it was basically, as soon as the gates opened, everyone started running. For some reason this particular bull zeroed in on him and just chased him down.
I can almost imagine the gatekeepers looking out at the crowd saying, "look at those stupid Americans right there up front...they're not even paying attention. Let's open the gates right now he he he..."
Anyway, as badly as he was hurt he was actually really lucky. The bull's horn went right where the sun don't shine, but it missed his man parts and, even more importantly, didn't hit any of the major arteries in the area or he probably would have bled out right there on the street.
Afterword, he said he remembered getting hit and flying through the air, but he thought he'd just been basically head butted...in the butt. He got up, ran to the barricade and got over it before even realizing he was bleeding...which was about the time the pain set in.
By the time I waded through the crowd to him, he was in shock and some first aid guys had him on a stretcher waiting for the ambulance.
He lost a good bit of intestines, his prostate, had various and sundry other organs damaged to some degree or another and had to have his bladder remanufactured from spare parts.
Like I said, it took him at least a year to even get back to some semblance of duty status and I doubt that he ever recovered 100%.
After he got back, the CO had him give a talk at "safety stand-down" to the whole command about the dangers of Running with the Bulls.
I don't remember many details about what he said (this was many years ago), but I remember that he closed with something along the lines of: "It's all fun and games until someone gets a horn up the a$$."
They almost had to cancel the rest of the safety stand-down because everyone was laughing so hard.
I'd rather be gored by a bull that bored by Al.
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