BENTON TOWNSHIP -- A man from Columbia County is back at home and recovering after being badly hurt in a bull riding accident this past week.
Cody Fronk, 19, was riding the bull Irish Resentment at the SR Rodeo near Benton this past weekend. It was his second bull ride of the night and it knocked him unconscious. Luckily the teen and local firefighter is at home, on the road to recovery.
His mouth is wired shut and he talked about his injuries with Newswatch 16.
"Busted up my face pretty good, broke my jaw, broke my cheek bone, broke my eye socket," Fronk said.
Fronk's good friend Aaron is an EMT in Benton, and watched as his friend was kicked unconscious by the bull named Irish Resentment. Aaron rushed to his aid.
"It was tough, it was really tough. I held myself together until he was in the back of the unit, because I knew that's where he needed to be."
Fronk can't remember any part of it.
"I don't remember nothing. Don't remember being there, don't remember being on the bull."
But his friends watching say it was horrific, as they wondered if he was OK.
"When he fell on the ground it actually was, honestly, it was scary."
Fronk said the ride that injured him at the SR Rodeo will be his last on a bull, and he's urging some of his friends to do the same."
"The next accident could be a lot worse and I won't be here to watch my family grow."
"It was pretty bad, a condition that I'd never want to see any of my children in," said Fronk's mother Mary Woodside.
This is Fronk's third bull riding accident in three years and says it's time to give up the dangerous hobby but he plans to continue fighting fires and keeping others safe.
"There's a good chance I could help somebody else, instead of endangering myself."
The people who run SR Rodeo posted on their Facebook page that they are not holding practice this week after the incident.
Fronk's doctors say his full recovery will take a few months but that he may never be able to remember the bull riding incident.