This is the horrifying moment that saw a Spanish reveler fight for his life after being gored in the throat and kicked in a bullring at an annual festival.
The 37-year-old, known locally as Jose Ramon Bronte Les, was bleeding and appeared to be virtually lifeless as he fell to his knees in his blood-stained clothing before being rushed to safety when the animal briefly halted its attack.
He was saved by an Italian cardiac surgeon who was on vacation and happened to be among the spectators watching the event.
The specialist is said to have offered to carry out an emergency operation on site and was able to stop the bleeding with other emergency services before the injured person was taken to the hospital.
The drama took place in a bullring in the town of Arguedas, an hour’s drive south of Pamplona in northern Spain, on Sunday night.
The animal that Jose Ramon attacked was a young heifer, often used in Spanish festivals because it is less dangerous than bulls and baby bulls, but is faster and can still do a lot of damage with its horns.
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This is the horrifying moment that saw a Spanish reveler fight for his life after being stabbed in the neck by a heifer at an annual festival
The reveler was thrown to the ground from behind after taking part in a Pamplona-style bull run through the streets of Arguedas as the animals entered the bullring.
Onlookers could hear screams of terror as the heifer, known as vaquilla in Spanish, pressed her target against the walls of the bullring and continued to dig her horns into his flesh.
With blood spurting from his neck, the man tries to get up. However, he seems too weak to do so and sits limp in the dirt.
Footage of the final seconds of the drama showed two men pulling him out of the animal’s reach by lifting him by his t-shirt.
Local reports said the Italian hero surgeon, identified only by his first name Efren, helped stabilize the injured and traveled with him and other rescue workers in the back of the ambulance after offering to operate on him.
Jose Ramon, whose condition has been described as “serious but stable”, is said to have already thanked the man who rescued him after he started breathing unaided again at Tudela’s Reina Sofia hospital and received his first visits from relatives .
Efren, who was camping in Arguedas during his stopover en route to Portugal, has declined interview requests and is reported to have left the city for his final holiday destination on Tuesday.
The 37-year-old, known locally as Jose Ramon Bronte Les, was bleeding and appeared to be virtually lifeless as he fell to his knees in his blood-stained clothing before being rushed to safety when the animal briefly halted its attack
The man (pictured on the ground) was rescued by an Italian heart surgeon who was on holiday and happened to be among the spectators watching the event
Sunday’s near-tragedy came a day after an 18-year-old died after being gored by a bull during annual celebrations in the town of Soneja, in Spain’s east coast province of Castellon.
The animal that killed him had just been unleashed after flaming balls of combustible material attached to his horns were set alight while still tied to a post.
Charity activities have tried to stop the controversial practice, known in Spanish as toro-embolado.
The return of celebrations featuring Spanish animals since the easing of coronavirus restrictions has resulted in a spate of deaths and injuries so far this summer.
Earlier this month, a reveler was dragged to safety with bleeding legs after being gored by a young bull at a Spanish festival where a man was killed three years ago.
A bystander could be heard screaming: “He’s bleeding to death” as he was helped before a good Samaritan administered a life-saving tourniquet after it was confirmed his femoral artery had been hit.
The drama surrounding the 47-year-old happened at an annual festival in Pinoso, near Alicante on the Costa Blanca, the same place where a 26-year-old man lost his life during the same celebrations three years ago.
Last week, a reveler fought for his life after a baby bull severed an artery in his leg when he impaled and kicked him during a Spanish festival. Pictured: The man tries to outrun the bull on a pile of tires in footage from the festival
Footage of the moment he was impaled showed him being tipped off a giant hoop by the animal as he mocked it in an enclosed arena. The bull did not let up in its attack and also trampled on him
Pictured: The man is shown being impaled in the air and against the hoops by the bull as he tries to get up off the ground and as other people in the arena look on
Last month, a reveler cheated death after being mauled by a bull, which literally means bulls in the sea, during an annual event in the Costa Blanca resort of Moraira, near Benidorm, known as Bous a la Mar.
He suffered a bloody injury to his groin, as well as scratches and bruises, after being pinned to the ground by the enraged animal for nearly half a minute in a makeshift bullring on the marina’s quay.
The man eventually managed to free himself from his clutches and, after scrambling to safety, jumped into the sea. The day before the scare struck, three people had died in just 24 hours after being gored by bulls at other festivals in the area.
On July 20, a 56-year-old man was confirmed to have lost his fight for life in hospital after being rushed to intensive care on July 12 from an event in Picassent, near the city of Valencia on the east coast, with head injuries and blood injuries had been brought.
The local town hall said at the time it had ordered a day of mourning after learning of the man’s death.
On July 19, it emerged that a 50-year-old man named Josep Antoni Garcia Arnau had died at another hospital in Valencia from injuries he sustained after being killed at a festival in Meliana, a 40-minute drive north of Picassent been knocked over by a bull.
He was diagnosed with seven broken ribs and one of the blows he suffered was said to have entered one of his lungs and caused a pool of blood that eventually took his life.
Around the same time, a 64-year-old Frenchman was confirmed to have died in hospital nine days after being impaled during an annual festival in Pedreguer on the Costa Blanca, half an hour’s drive from Moraira.
All three men had attended annual events known locally as Bous Al Carrer, which literally means cops on the street.