‘Military practice’ used to treat knife injuries

Children admitted to A&E with torture wounds, machete slashes and drug packets inside their bodies

TORTURE wounds, machete slashes and packets of crack cocaine trapped inside tiny bodies. These are some of the severe injuries emergency departments are seeing as the country’s knife crime epidemic intensifies and spreads from big cities into rural areas. In the week in which Jaden Moodie, 14, was stabbed and killed in London, those on the front line of the battle against knife crime have told of the disturbing scenes and life-changing injuries that they see every day, as trauma units are forced to develop a “military practice” to cope with extreme wounds.

At Cambridge’s Addenbrooke’s Hospital, staff now treat more than seven stab victims per month on average.

“Even in leafy Cambridge we’re seeing a significant increase in knife injuries,” Dr Adrian Boyle, a consultant emergency physician, said. “We’ve seen a 40 per cent increase from 2014 to 2018.” As the level of violent crime in rural areas has increased, the severity of attacks in large cities has worsened.

Lucy Knell-Taylor, a youth worker at Redthread, a group that works in hospitals with victims of violent crime, said, “Across London and the Midlands, we’ve worked with a number of people who were kidnapped and tortured. They were put in the back of a car and over the course of a day repeatedly burnt, cut, really scary stuff.”

Other injuries include extreme uri- nary tract infections from children involved in county lines drug running who have been kept in a “trap house” for days on end with no water and teenagers with packages of drugs, such as crack cocaine, stored inside their bodies.

Ken Crossley, one of 32 paramedics in London who specialise in critical care, said: “It’s not uncommon in four shifts to see at least one fairly significant knife assault.”

Mr Crossley, who has seen stab victims as young as 11, added: “I’ve seen a number of machete attacks... you see some large slash wounds that can cause significant injuries.” Dr Shehan Hettiaratchy, lead surgeon and major trauma director at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, which treats one to two stabbing victims on average per night, said: “We’ve had to expand our skill set [with methods that] aren’t commonplace and are developed from military practice, like taking someone who is bleeding out straight to the operating theatre.”

Amid the increase – St Mary’s treated 352 patients for knife and 26 for gunshot wounds last year – there are additional challenges. “We’ve had episodes where gang members have attacked each other in hospital,” said Dr Hettiaratchy. “It can spill over and make life pretty difficult for us.”

As a result of the “incredibly demanding” work, St Mary’s Hospital has had “recruitment problems”.

“It’s challenging work, particularly for our nursing and therapy staff who look after these patients 24/7,” said Dr Hettiaratchy. “It takes its toll and these roles are difficult to fill.”

The London Ambulance Service has been offering counselling and mental health support to help staff.