Paramedic talks about treating stabbing victims as young as 12
CRITICAL care paramedic Peter Bowles spoke about the ‘scary’ moment he discovered a stabbing victim aged just 12, – though badly hurt, the boy was disturbingly “unfazed” by the vicious attack.
For Mr Bowles, the schoolboy patient was a particularly poignant case. He recalled his shock at the incident as he shared a behind-the-scenes look at the city’s “unnecessary” knife crime.
“I’ve been to minor injuries right up to death,” said the 35-year-old. “I do think it’s quite sad that a lot of the time the stabbing victims are quite young, I do think it’s an awful waste of life.
“With a stabbing, I don’t think there’s ever an excuse, or a reason, for it to happen.”
Just last year, the ambulance service was called to 588 stabbings across Birmingham alone, including deliberate and selfinflicted injuries.
Among all manner of “critical” patients, the MERIT team will be sent to “anybody that’s been stabbed in their central region”, including the head, neck, torso, armpit and groin. Injuries vary, with some victims needing vital, life-saving treatment on scene. Emotions too will differ, with some expressing their distress or asking for reassurance. But others, most notably the 12-year-old, appeared unperturbed by the violence suffered.
“I don’t remember them all because there’s so many, but I remember that one because he was so young and I was so taken aback at the time by how little it fazed him,” Peter said.
Fortunately, he survived. But that isn’t the case for many victims, often young males.
Mr Bowles said: “You can definitely recall the patients who have passed away or been significantly injured. You can recall those because they’re on the more extreme end of the spectrum and thankfully there aren’t too many of them to remember.
“In my experience, it’s young males that get stabbed and most of them won’t ask questions like “am I going to be ok?” Maybe there’s an element of pride and maybe their friends are on scene.”
Occasionally stabbing victims had left the scene, either having moved onto another address, or been driven to hospital, and paramedics arrive minutes later and find no patient.