American student gored in Spain recovering, shaken by event

An American university student who was repeatedly gored and tossed by a fighting bull last weekend is improving but remains shaken after the experience, a spokesman of the Clinic Hospital in the western city of Salamanca said today.
The spokesman said that University of Mississippi sophomore Benjamin Milley, 20, was not ready to talk publicly but was in contact by telephone with his family. The spokesman said he was accompanied by friends at the hospital.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with hospital rules.
Milley suffered several wounds, including a 40-cm (16-inch) goring in the thigh, when he was caught by a fighting bull during a festival in the nearby town of Ciudad Rodrigo on Saturday.

Images showed him being repeatedly tossed by the beast and in obvious pain at being gored and pushed along the ground. He was eventually pulled to safety.
Milley was operated on for nearly three hours before being taken to the Salamanca hospital.

Fiestas featuring bulls are common in Spain and many people are injured each year. Spain's most famous bull-running event is in the San Fermin festival in Pamplona in July.
In the runs, people test their bravery and speed by dashing ahead of the beasts through the streets to a town's bull ring.
Towns normally have special medical units ready to attend those injured in the festivals.

Spanish officials initially identified the student's last name as Miller but confirmed today it was Milley after the University of Mississippi said Milley, from Marietta, Georgia, was a student there and was the person injured.