‘I’M LUCKY I GOT AWAY’ SAYS WILLIAM AFTER GANG STABBING
33-year-old’s ordeal relived on TV show
A MAN who was stabbed multiple times in a Stoke-on-trent gang attack feels lucky to be alive.
The 33-year-old was ‘jumped’ by five men before being knifed repeatedly in the back and leg and slashed across the face and arm.
Despite fleeing the scene, the thugs then gave chase and continued their brutal assault.
Covered in his own blood, William was rushed to the Royal Stoke University Hospital, where he underwent life-saving surgery.
Speaking from his hospital bed just hours after being critically injured, William said: “They just started stabbing me up left, right and centre.
“They went to town on me. They came chasing me as I was running off as well. I’m lucky to have got away. I’m lucky really.”
William’s brush with death was retold on Channel 5’s hard-hitting documentary 999 Critical Condition on Thursday night.
It showed him arriving at the major trauma centre last year before being handed over by the paramedics who brought him in.
Doctors then assessed his wounds as they tried to work out the trajectory of the knives used and how severe the internal injuries were.
It was quickly established that there was no air entry into one of his lungs, which had partially collapsed.
After being placed on a drip and having his jeans cut off, William, right, was sent off for an x-ray and then a scan.
Trauma team leader Dr Chris Pickering told the camera crew: “We have no idea what is going on inside.
“You might have a three-centimetre wound on the outside but it might be a 12-inch blade. He looks like he’s in quite a lot of distress – there’s stab wounds everywhere. The left side of his chest doesn’t look like it’s moving.
“There’s something serious going on, we’ve got some blood in there as well. We need to get him through the scanner.”
After reviewing the scans, Chris added: “He’s got six stab wounds to his back and at least four to his legs and he’s got two to his arm. One wound seems to have done significant damage to the chest. “Until that bleeding is stopped it’s lifethreatening.”
Around 400ml of blood was then drained from William’s abdomen before he was sent to intensive care after being told he will need a keyhole operation.
Dr Pickering added: “The fact that he’s managed to get away with only a chest injury is quite incredible.
“How that’s missed his liver is astonishing.
“He’s been millimetres away from some very serious injuries. He’s not out of the woods yet.”
In an update at the end of the show, viewers were told William had been given the all-clear.
It is not clear if anyone was interested in connection with the attack.
Other patients featured on the episode included a 55-year-old Chris Jones, who was hit by a lorry as he tried to stop a cow running into the road, as well as 38-year-old mother who has had a stroke in her sleep and a patient who was trampled by a cow.
999 Critical Condition is on Channel 5 on Thursdays at 9pm.