The rodeo community comes together to help one of their own after a bull riding accident

WEST, Texas (KWTX) – A West resident is now in the hospital and making a miraculous recovery after being trampled by a bull helping out at a rodeo this weekend.

Growing up in rodeo, Austin Patterson always loved bull riding and did so most of his life.

According to his fiancée, Megan Shoonmaker, Austin suffered a bull riding accident in 2019 that broke his neck, ending his bull riding career.

“Doctors pretty much told him that if he got on a bull again and fell off even the tiniest bit wrong, he would paralyze or kill him,” she explained.

But that hasn’t stopped him from doing what he loves… now raising and training bulls and helping other riders.

Sonny Barthold, a good friend of Austin’s in the bull riding community, says, “He’s one of those guys that he always helps with the Bucking Bull deal at all our events.”

That’s what he did last Saturday, when things suddenly took a turn for the worse.

“We actually just went to watch, but Austin being Austin, of course you saw that they were having trouble getting a bull in the run and he felt like he had to jump in, and so he jumped in and… went from a little bit south there,” Shoonmaker said.

Cody and Heather South have known Austin for years and shared what he told them when they were finally able to see him after the accident.

“He just stepped and slipped and the bull just came over him. You know, once you’re under it, it’s hard to get out,” Cody South said.

Shoonmaker and another friend immediately took him to the hospital and later learned that he had broken five ribs, his sternum and pelvis, a collapsed lung and a lacerated liver.

“If you talk to Austin, you know he said he had never felt like he was going to die before, and that night he felt like he was going to die, which is a really scary thought,” recalls them themselves.

But thanks to his doctors and all the encouragement from family and friends, Austin has made an incredible recovery.

Cody South said that “I had to go over to him and… get him up and get him walking.” And as soon as he leaves the hospital, he walks straight to the altar.

According to Shoonmaker, “The first thing he said to us in the ER when they wanted to move him to the intensive care unit was, I can’t go there, I have a wedding on Saturday.”

However, Austin still has a long way to go and that is why Barthold decided to start the Austin Patterson benefit auction for bull breeders on his Facebook.

“He’s not going to work as much as he’s used to working and you know we want to hold his bills for him,” Barthold said. “We have such a strong group of people that… they are ready, so we are ready to help him.”

He says they’ve already raised more than $60,000 and are now in their third and final round, which ends tomorrow night at 8pm.

You can click here to go to his page. Barthold says that they have 4 world champion bulls in their auction, including the bull ‘big bank’ that was raised in West by Pistol Robinson.

“I’ve told Sonny a few times that there really are no words to describe how grateful and thankful we are,” Austin’s fiancé and soon-to-be wife shared.

There is also one Go finance me set up for Austin to help him while he focuses on recovery.