Runaway rodeo bull hospitalized California woman. She says it actually saved her life
A runaway rodeo bull in Redding, California, injured several people in May. Months later, a California woman says the bull that hospitalized her possibly saved her life after she found out she has cancer during CT scans.
Paige King, 25, of Redding was one of the six people the runaway bull injured after it escaped into the crowd at the Redding Rodeo on May 20, according to KRCR.
The bull, named Border Crisis, leapt over the fence into the crowd and then into a parking lot, the Redding Rodeo Association wrote on Facebook. It was then captured near a bridge about half a mile from the area.
“I didn’t know exactly what was happening; it took me a second. And then my boyfriend picked me up, and I was like, oh, there’s a bull there,” King, who was the only one hospitalized from the incident,told KRCR.
After being brought to the emergency room to be treated for her injuries, King had a CT scan that revealed she has the beginning stages of thyroid cancer, according to KRCR.
“Through some rodeo family, we were referred to one of the best cancer treatment hospitals in the nation,” King’s father Erick Mattson wrote on a GoFundMe page. “Her story is not over; she just got ran over by a bull to change her life a little.”
Paige’s mother, Jennifer Mattson, wrote Sept. 17 on Facebook that her daughter is now undergoing treatment.
“After months of waiting, an ultrasound report that was scary in itself and a biopsy last week we found out that the mass is malignant,” Mattson wrote. “The next several months will be challenging but she is strong, she is surrounded by an amazing loving group of friends/family and together we will get through this.”
Now, Mattson says her family owes the bull a debt of gratitude.
“As scary as that night was for us, we will forever be thankful that it happened and remember Border Crisis as the bull that saved her life,” she wrote. “We know that he’s living happily on the ranch and has no idea that he is our hero, but we know.”
Redding is about 200 miles north of San Francisco.
This story was originally published September 30, 2022 at 1:26 PM with the headline "Runaway rodeo bull hospitalized California woman. She says it actually saved her life."