Next to the Patio de Caballos, behind a large wooden gate, lies the infirmary of the first bullring in the world. Since the inauguration of Las Ventas, this space has undergone numerous reforms to adapt it to new surgical advances. To this day, it can be considered a hospital.
The infirmary of Las Ventas attends to all types of public: spectators, workers of the square and, of course, bullfighters. When a bullfighter suffers a catch, he is transferred by his companions to the observation room, where he is given a first assessment. If it is determined that the injured person needs surgical attention, the swordsman is notified, who undresses the bullfighter, avoiding, as far as possible, cutting the suit of lights. As a curiosity, inside the infirmary there is a television for which the medical team carefully follows the catches; In this way, when the bullfighter arrives at the observation room, they know, almost perfectly, the place, extension and trajectories of the bulls horns.
In the infirmary of Las Ventas, in charge of the team of doctor Don Máximo García Padrós, the main cures are made, those of greater urgency and scope. Afterwards, the injured person is transferred in a mobile ICU to a hospital center, where he continues his recovery. Hundreds of lives have been saved among the walls of Las Ventas, sometimes miraculously, thanks to the expertise of their doctors.
Since the inauguration of Las Ventas, only five people have died in this infirmary: two bullfighters, two banderilleros and a carpenter.