A Jacksonville man suffers a ruptured bladder after being gored at the annual Running of the Bulls in Spain.
By Associated Press
Published July 16, 2003
Robert Frederick Fluhr had already dared the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, three times on his vacation, managing to evade the perturbed animals pursuing him and other daredevils down the city's cobblestone streets.
But the 27-year-old Jacksonville salesman wasn't so fortunate Monday, when he returned to the city for the final day of the Running of the Bulls in the historic San Fermin Festival.
Fluhr's bladder was ruptured when he was gored in the buttock just 50 yards from the end of the narrow, 900-yard road course.
He will remain hospitalized in Spain for up to two weeks, he said in a telephone interview Tuesday while hooked up to tubes feeding into his nose and two IVs pumping drugs into his arms.
"I didn't think I was badly injured at all until someone helped me up and I tried to run," Fluhr said. "I think I ran about 10 to 15 feet. It may have been 20. I crawled under a fence to safety, and the police immediately rushed me to the hospital."
The bull, which was among six killed later Monday by matadors in traditional late-morning bullfights, had cornered several revelers, including Fluhr, in an alleyway.
Tim Wedel, Fluhr's half-brother, had run ahead of him and into the bullring. When Fluhr didn't show up at various rendezvous points in Pamplona, Wedel took a public bus back to their hotel in San Sebastian, only to see his brother getting gored on television news.
Fluhr, who works for a child care supply company, said he, Wedel, 35, and their friend, Ramsey Hasan, 33, of Fort Lauderdale, planned the trip for Hasan's birthday because they are Ernest Hemingway fans. Hemingway immortalized the San Fermin festival in his 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises.
"We stayed in Pamplona for three nights, went to our hotel in San Sebastian and decided to come back to Pamplona for the last day," Fluhr said. "I should have stayed in San Sebastian."
Fluhr was one of two men gored Monday. At least four others were trampled.
The San Fermin festival has featured the Running of the Bulls since the 16th century. Since recordkeeping began in 1924, 13 people have been killed at the festival.
Tourists descend on the city starting each July 7. Bars stay open all night and are filled at 7 a.m., when the streets are prepared for the bull run at 8.
Thousands pack balconies and ledges to watch the bulls and runners dash by in a blur, on streets often little more than 10 feet wide and lined solidly with buildings.
