American Gored in Neck During Running of the Bulls in Pamplona

PAMPLONA, Spain (AP) — The desire to have a selfie as a souvenir from running with the bulls in Spain turned into a near-death experience an American lawyer says he'll never forget. A charging bull ran over and gored San Francisco resident Jaime Alvarez in the neck during the first run of this year's San Fermin festival in Pamplona, an event immortalized by writer Ernest Hemingway nearly a century ago. "The joy and the excitement of being in the bullring quickly turned into a scare, into real fear for my life," Alvarez, 46, said Monday at a regional hospital where he was recovering from surgery. Doctors told Alvarez the bull's horn went deep into his neck and fractured part of a cheekbone. That it didn't hit the jugular vein or major arteries was described to the injured patient as "beyond miraculous." Alvarez, who works as a public defender in Santa Clara County, California, said he realized how severely he'd been hurt during his encounter with the bull Sunday morning when he touched his neck and his hand came away covered with blood. "In the course of a few seconds, a million thoughts came to my mind, and that of dying was definitely one of them," he said. Once it appeared certain he would live, the run-in brought rebukes from Alvarez's wife and daughter. The three stopped in Pamplona to check out the famous San Fermin festival while in route to another city where the couple's son was playing in a soccer tournament. While his daughter and wif...
Source: JEMS Patient Care - Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: International Trauma News AP News Tag Source Type: news