After being gored through the jaw and eye in front of horrified spectators, a Spanish bullfighter is in recovery from surgery.
Television footage captured the shocking moment when Juan Jose Padilla was struck by the bull’s left horn, which tore through his lower jaw and pierced near his protruding eyeball.
The 508kg bull pinned Padilla to the ground, and he was only rescued when bullring assistants in Zaragoza managed to distract the animal.
As he staggered from the ring, the 39-year-old exclaimed, “I can’t see, I can’t see anything,” while blood streamed from his face.
Sustaining damage to his eye, bone, muscle, and skin, the matador underwent a five-hour surgery at a hospital nearby.
Marques, the bull involved in the incident, was the second one Padilla had fought that day.
The surgical team, led by doctors Simon Sanz and Nadal Cristobal, utilized titanium plates and mesh to reconstruct parts of Padilla’s facial bone structure and eye socket.
According to a hospital representative, the surgeons attempted to rebuild the bullfighter’s left ocular nerve, though the success of this endeavor remains unconfirmed.
However, Vicente Yesteras, one of Padilla’s bullring helpers, remarked on how fortunate the matador was that the bull’s horn did not penetrate his brain.
