Wiley suffered broken ribs, collapsed lung and other injuries.

ALANSON -- For Bob Wiley, life is not about taking second chances for granted.

"I would have been dead," Wiley said a little more than a week after being attacked by a bull on his Emmet County farm. "The bull for some reason on this day didn't like the situation." Wiley moved to his 150 acre farm three years ago after retiring in Ohio.

A little more than a week ago, Wiley had started what turned out to be a typical Saturday. He was doing his routine chores around the farm; his neighbor, Tim Rostar, stopped by as he usually does.

"I go up there about twice a day, so it was a good thing I was up there when I was," Rostar said.

Wiley was in the back of his farm moving the 2-year-old Angus bull and his pasture mate, a 2-year-old sterile heifer, through a 10 foot wide passageway of the barn, a manuever Wiley says he's done many times before.  

"I went and grabbed these gates which normally can close in right behind him like this which takes about a second," Wiley said.

But, then came what Wiley calls a big mistake. Bob had forgotten that just days before he had chained the gates together to the wall.

The chain made a rattling noise which is believed to be the spark that ignited the 1,700 pound bull as it ripped into a rampage. Bob, just feet away had no where to go.

"I grabbed the door here to open it to make my escape but I never made it, the bull beat me," Wiley said.

The weight of a small car, the bull was digging his hind legs into the ground, using his head as a battering ram into Wiley's body.

"I was pretty worried, I never heard that type of ruckus in that end of the barn, so I ran down there," Rostar said. "I opened the door and Bob was being attacked by the bull, viciously."

"Oh my, it felt like a ton of bricks on my chest," Wiley said.

Rostar first tried to pull the bull off, grabbing it by the ears; no luck.

"I see a shovel sitting up against the wall and I knew I had to do something," Rostar said. "I grabbed the shovel and hit him (the bull) over the head with it."

"From the time the bull turned around to the time I'm on the ground to the time the bull jumped, probably less than ten seconds," Wiley said. "It was very quick."

Quick, but now Wiley was in a lot of trouble; disoriented and severely injured.

"The initial dispatch said he wasn't responding so we didn't know even if he was going to be alive when we got there," said Tom Frascone, a paramedic with Allied EMS. "It was pretty serious and considering it was a bull that attacked him we were highly suspicious that he had internal injuries."

Wiley spent five days in the hospital, recuperating with seven broken ribs, a collapsed lung and several other injuries.

Each year, it's estimated that roughly 100 people are severely injured or killed by bull. As for Bob, he says he's just happy to be alive.

"I don't know what the Lord has planned for me, but I'm glad he's here," Wiley said.

Wiley says the paramedics and doctors at Northern Michigan Regional Hospital were crucial in him being here today, but more importantly it was the courage of Rostar that Wiley says gave him his second chance at life.

Wiley adds that he has not decided what he'll do with the bull, but says he does not believe in punishing the bull for his own mistake; a mistake he says he'll certainly learn from.