Senior stabbed through neck near Tiananmen, left in critical condition
- Source: Global Times
- [08:27 April 14 2011]
- Comments
By Huang Shaojie
An 81-year-old man was allegedly stabbed in the back of the neck Wednesday morning outside the Wumen Gate of the Forbidden City, north of Tiananmen Square.
The knife pierced all the way through his left cheek, a hospital employee told the Global Times on condition of anonymity for herself and the hospital.
The victim was a scavenger who was fighting over a plastic bottle with another man when the latter stabbed him, the employee said.
"It's said a certificate of mental illness was found in the pocket of the attacker," she said.
The victim was rushed to the hospital in a coma from massive blood loss at 9:30 am, the hospital staff member said.
Police could not be reached last night for comment.
The victim was immediately subjected to lengthy surgeries to stop the bleeding and heart and lung failure until around 4 pm, when he was transferred into the intensive care unit, according to the hospital employee, who described his condition as "terminally critical."
"We went through 2,600 milliliters of blood during transfusions while he was on the table," said the staff member. "We still have to constantly keep the transfusion going."
The attack "probably" did not sever his main arteries, the hospital employee said, "Otherwise he probably wouldn't have made it to the hospital."
A family member of the victim answered a phone call from the reporter but would not talk.
