This is the terrifying moment a Spanish reveller was gored in the neck and trampled in a bullring during an annual celebration.
The 37-year-old, identified locally as Jose Ramon Bronte Les, was left haemorrhaging blood and seemed to be nearly unconscious as he sank to his knees in his blood-stained garments before being dragged to safety as the animal temporarily ceased its assault.
He was rescued by an Italian cardiovascular surgeon who happened to be on vacation and was among the spectators witnessing the event.
The expert medic allegedly volunteered to conduct an emergency surgery on the site and was able to stop the bleeding with the help of other emergency responders before transporting the wounded guy to the hospital.
The incident occurred on Sunday evening at a bullring in Arguedas, a village in northern Spain about an hour’s drive south of Pamplona.
The animal that rushed Jose Ramon was a young heifer, which are often utilized in Spanish festivals since they are less dangerous than bulls and newborn bulls, but they are quicker and can still do significant harm with their horns.
After taking part in a Pamplona-style Running of the Bulls event through the streets of Arguedas as the animals reached the bullring, the reveller was slammed to the ground from behind.
Spectators screamed in terror as the heifer, known as a vaquilla in Spanish, forced its prey up against the bullring’s walls and proceeded to drive its horns into his skin.
The guy is seen fighting to rise to his feet as blood is streaming from his neck. He looks to be too feeble to do so, and is shown sitting limply on the soil.
Footage from the drama’s closing seconds showed two me
According to local sources, the hero Italian surgeon, revealed only by his first name Efren, managed to stabilize the wounded guy and traveled in the back of the ambulance with him and other emergency responders after volunteering to operate on him.
Jose Ramon, whose condition has been classified as “critical but stable,” is believed to have already thanked the guy who rescued him after beginning to breathe unassisted at Tudela’s Reina Sofia Hospital and getting his first visits from family.
Efren, who was camping in Arguedas during his layover en way to Portugal, denied interview requests and was reported to have departed town on Tuesday for his ultimate vacation destination.
The near-tragedy happened a day after an 18-year-old died after being gored by a bull during traditional celebrations in Soneja, a town on Spain’s east coast province of Castellon.
The animal that murdered him had just been released free after being tethered to a pole with flaming balls of combustible material connected to its horns.
Welfare efforts have sought to put an end to the contentious practice known in Spanish as toro embolado.
Since the loosening of coronavirus regulations, the resumption of celebrations using Spanish animals has resulted in a rash of goring fatalities and injuries this summer.
A reveller was hauled to safety earlier this month with blood flowing down his leg after being gored by a juvenile bull at a Spanish event where a man was murdered three years ago.
As he was taken away, a spectator could be heard crying, ‘He’s bleeding to death,’ before a Good Samaritan applied a life-saving tourniquet after it was determined his femoral artery had been severed.
The incident involving the 47-year-old occurred during an annual festival in Pinoso, near Alicante on the Costa Blanca, where a 26-year-old man died three years earlier during the same events.
Last month, a reveller escaped death after being attacked by a bull during the Bous a la Mar, an annual event in the Costa Blanca town of Moraira near Benidorm known as the Bulls in the Sea.
After being trapped on the ground in a makeshift bull ring built up by the marina quayside for over half a minute by the agitated animal, he sustained a gore damage to his crotch as well as scratches and bruises.
After rushing to safety, the guy ultimately managed to remove himself from its grasp and plunged into the water. The day before the panic, it was revealed that three people had died in only 24 hours after being gored by bulls at other local festivities.
On July 20, it was announced that a 56-year-old man had died in hospital after being transported to urgent care on July 12 with head and gore injuries after an incident in Picassent, near the east coast city of Valencia.
The local town council said at the time that it had declared a day of mourning after the death of the guy.
On July 19, it was revealed that Josep Antoni Garcia Arnau, 50, had died at another Valencia hospital from injuries sustained after being upended by a bull during a festival in Meliana, a 40-minute drive north of Picassent.
He was diagnosed with seven fractured ribs, and one of the punches he received is alleged to have pierced one of his lungs, causing a blood buildup that ultimately took his life.
A Frenchman, 64, died in hospital nine days after being gored at an annual festival in Pedreguer, on the Costa Blanca, about a half-hour drive from Moraira.
All three males have participated in yearly festivities known locally as Bous Al Carrer, which translates as “Bulls on the Street.”