Jose Tomas received a transfusion of 17 pints of blood after being gored Saturday by a beast named Navegante in the Mexican city of Aguascalientes.
The bull's horn penetrated 4 inches into Tomas' groin and punctured a vein and an artery, manager Salvador Boix told Spanish radio station Cadena Ser from Aguascalientes.
Tomas, one of Spain's most popular matadors, has a relatively rare blood type – A negative – and bled so profusely that bullring officials appealed over the arena loudspeakers for compatible donors to come forward for transfusions, Boix said.
Top matador loses 17 pints of blood following bull goring
The first was to wonder just how much blood a human body has. Turns out that's a popular question. Ask Yahoo states:
The results were much more promising and we spotted several useful sites, including a page from the PBS show NOVA titled "Electric Heart" and an entry on blood from the InfoPlease Almanac.
Both sites claim that the human body contains approximately 6 quarts (or 5.6 liters) of blood.
How much blood does the human body contain?
Six quarts is twelve pints. So, the guy must have been empty before the donors showed up.
My other reaction was to ask this of my friends and family: If I ever lose a gallon of blood because I was torturing a cow, please let me die.
6 comments:
So noted, and ditto.
Kind of brutal, but I've got to say I'm with you on this one.
It's a brutal sport, lawguy. While I don't mean to say that the guy should have been refused treatment, I do feel that if I were doing such a thing, something would have gone seriously wrong in my own life.
Will do. In fact, I'll even lean over you and say "Confucius say, when you torture bull, sometimes bull torture you" as you lay dying, just for good measure.
A related anecdote:
Many years ago while on vacation I went to a rodeo in Cheyenne. The finale involved letting some wild horses loose and having a bunch of cowboys try to rope them and tie them to some really stupid looking wagons. Everybody laughed.
But what broke my heart was watching so many of the wild horses crash into the railing which surrounded the infield and breaking their legs.
Afterwards, while everyone was filing out, a horse drawn sled went around the stadium and loaded up the now crippled horses. That image has stuck with me for over 40 years now.
And BTW I wouldn't go to another rodeo for all the tea in China.
Rodeos are something I've always had mixed feelings about. There are spectacles like the one you mentioned, and other forms of cruelty. OTOH, there are some events, like barrel racing, that show some wonderful teamwork between horses and riders.
On balance, though, if I ever see another rodeo it will be too soon.
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