In room 100, at the Viamed hospital in Seville, rests Morante de la Puebla. He was taken out of the ICU a few hours ago. He greets with a tired smile, a calm expression. He has the logical discomfort, but painkillers control the pain: "It was the goring that hurt me the most in my life. Phew, it was a very strong pain. I touched myself looking for the blood." He knows perfectly well how everything happened when he went to collect the placed bull. He has the IV lines in his left hand, on the back of the hand that draws the art of bullfighting. "I was afraid there would be a lot of blood," he says while waiting for the visit from Dr. Octavio Mulet.
The wound drainage barely spits out blood anymore. When the doctor enters, he explains things to him. They are going to put in a central line for parenteral nutrition, that is, an intravenous administration of nutrients directly into the bloodstream. He cannot eat for five days. Earlier, the master had joked: "Let's see if they give me a yogurt". Mulet explains to EL MUNDO the complexity of the goring due to the delicate area, the sphincter reconstruction, and the fear of possible infections. That's why antibiotics are being administered through the veins where the blood of bullfighting flows.
Morante reviews his memorable April Fair, the sensations of when he was carried on shoulders towards the Puerta del Príncipe on the historic afternoon of April 16, things we will tell. Now they are going to take him back to the ICU, where he was very cold this early morning: "Very cold." He makes a gesture of pain. "The bull was loose and when it stood in the middle, I went for it. It took me by surprise." The genius will be hospitalized for at least a week. The bullfighting world is in shock. Morante returned to make Seville his own again, and unfortunately shed his blood. "The only thing left is for a bull to catch me," he had said the day before.
"I had a bit of a rough night, didn't sleep much, but the truth is I didn't have much pain. I'll have to be like this for a few days, with no food, and I hope I can get through it with a bit of patience," details the bullfighter, lying on the bed in the Seville clinic, with the IV in his left hand. "It was without a doubt the most painful goring I have suffered in my career, I had immense pain and also I was very scared because I saw that the bull had caught me and thought I was bleeding a lot. When I arrived at the infirmary and saw that the bleeding was minimal, I relaxed quite a bit. But it hurt a lot," he emphasizes.
Even the doctor who performed the operation and the medical report, Octavio Mulet, stated last night in statements to Mundotoro that the area of the goring is one of "very important pain." "The goring has had complex injuries, more than its own severity. It is the anal area, the rectum. A sphincter repair had to be done, making the surgery more complicated," pointed out the doctor, who also ruled out other injuries in the lumbar area, pending radiological tests of the goring.
Although Morante still cannot consume food, parenteral nutrition will allow him to be fed intravenously. "I've never had it, but they say it's with a catheter that reaches the larger vein so that the food enters much better," explains the bullfighter.