Rodeo champ will get back on bucking bull despite near-fatal blow

But Chad Castillo, 19, insists he'll climb back on a bucking bull despite a dangerous blow to the head that smashed his face and knocked him out 10 days ago.

"Oh, yeah," said Castillo, a rookie from Tucson, Ariz., competing on the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association circuit.

After all, the all-around champion at Marana High School has battled back from injuries before.

"Back a couple of years ago, he was stepped on in the middle of his back with both feet and he separated his lung from the lining," his stepfather, Frank Scott, told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

"They wanted him out three weeks and I think he was back riding in two," he said.

Another time, Castillo was knocked out and the doctors wanted him sidelined at least two weeks.

"They didn't even want him driving. He drove to three different rodeos that weekend," Scott said.

Castillo is ranked seventh in the PRCA world standings in bull riding and is in first place in the rookie all-around standings.

He said he doesn't remember a thing about the bull ride that put his life in jeopardy at the Reno Rodeo championships June 27.

All he knows he climbed aboard a bull named Trick or Treat, hoping for an 8-second ride. It ended quicker than that after the bull's horn hit him in the face, knocking him unconscious. The bull then stomped on him twice before it could be distracted by bullfighters.

Castillo's next memory was waking up at Washoe Medical Center's intensive care unit three days later after undergoing surgery to repair a shattered nose and jaw.

His recovery has been extraordinary, much to the relief of his stepfather and mother, Pinkie Scott. They were at home in Arizona when they got a call about their son's injury.

"It was one of the most difficult calls I've ever gotten," Mrs. Scott said.

The Scotts immediately caught a plane to Reno and arrived to find their son in critical condition. Doctors had to wait for his condition to stabilize before they could perform surgery.

"Once we got here, I wouldn't say I was relieved because he was in pretty bad shape," Frank Scott said.

By the next day, Castillo's condition had improved to serious but stable. Two steel plates were inserted into his jaw during 3-hour surgery the following day. His shattered nose was also repaired and bone fragments were removed from his jaw, which was also wired shut.

"Probably the biggest relief was, I think, on Wednesday after noon when he kind of opened his eyes," Frank Scott said. "That was a huge, huge relief."

Doctors said there was no sign of neurological damage. By Friday, Castillo's condition was upgraded to satisfactory and on Sunday, he was transferred out of the intensive care unit to a private room.

On Monday morning, with the exception of a cervical collar around his neck, he looked much like a normal teenager, particularly when his girlfriend, Kim Green, a fellow rodeo competitor, called on the telephone.

"He seems to be getting better by the hour," said Scott, who fears the biggest challenge might be keeping Castillo from rushing his recovery.

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