A freak bull attack sent Paige King to the hospital, but it also saved her life.
A CT scan to diagnose potential injuries from the attack revealed early stages of thyroid cancer.
The 25-year-old was sitting in the stands at a Redding, CA rodeo when a runaway bull got loose and jumped into the stands.
The bull injured six people and sent King to the hospital.
“And I went down, and I just didn’t really know what was going on exactly; it kind of took me a second, and then my boyfriend picked me up, and I was like, ‘oh, there’s a bull there,'” King told ABC 7.
King’s father, Erick Mattson, was terrified by the ordeal and rushed his daughter to the hospital.
“We brought her to the emergency room, and through that, they did a CT scan of her,” Mattson told KHOU 11. “They noticed a lump on her neck, and the emergency room doctor said, ‘you have to get that checked out.'”
King was found to have a few small fractures in her back from the bull and was later diagnosed with early-onset thyroid cancer.
“I was stunned, honestly, as one of your kids discovered that they might have cancer. It gives you chills to know that this is way bigger than the rodeo was this year,” her dad, Erick Mattson, recently told KRCR-TV.
A family friend has referred King to a treatment center in Texas.
“I’m very grateful for him and appreciate what he’s done for us,” King said.
“Through some rodeo family, we were referred to one of the best cancer treatment hospitals in the nation,” her dad wrote on a GoFundMe page aimed at raising funds to help King pay for care.
King will be required to travel back and forth between California and Text for her treatment.
“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,” King’s mother, Jennifer Mattson, wrote on Facebook.
In another fateful turn of events, King accidentally got to unintentionally meet her “savior” again.
King, a house cleaner, arrived at a client’s house when she saw they had bulls on their property.
One bull, in particular, looked familiar.
It’s not likely you’d forget a bull that charged you and sent you to a hospital.
“I was driving, and I looked to my left, and, all of a sudden, I see this bull, and he looked identical to him, and I look at my coworker, and I’m like, ‘there’s no way,'” King said.
But there was, and that was definitely the bull that attacked her.
She made sure to take a selfie with him.
“I was able to smile about it and laugh. I was scared at first, but it was fun,” King told the station.
“It was a full-circle moment, and I’ll cherish it forever.”
Her mom is a big fan of that bull.
“As scary as that night was for us, we will forever be thankful that it happened and remember the bull that saved her life. We know that he’s living happily on the ranch and has no idea that he is our hero, but we know,” she wrote on Facebook.
Learn more about King’s story in the video below.
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