Surgeon's sick of stitching up knife victims

CHILDREN as young as 12 are being permanently disfigured because of bloody gang wars on our streets.

But now one fed-up surgeon - part of an army of NHS staff battling to patch up kids caught in the epidemic of violence - has warned: ENOUGH is enough.

Consultant Jeff Downie revealed that, on average, staff at Glasgow's Southern General Hospital are stitching up one slashed youngster every SIX HOURS.

And he fumed: "Kids at this age should be worried about pimples but instead have horrible scars across their entire face.

"They are the lucky ones. Many suffer nerve damage, meaning they can't move their face properly, while others lose their sight.

"It's depressing when we see children who have to go through the rest of their lives disfigured."

The cost of treating knife injuries in Glasgow alone is a whopping £6.5million each year.

null

But the cost in terms of ruined lives and shattered dreams is much higher. Jeff said: "Kids must stop and think about the dangers of carrying weapons.

"We do our best to help these kids as they come through but this problem has to be tackled before the harm is done."

The city has the highest rate of such injuries in Europe, at over 1,460 a year - and 80 per cent of those attacks are alcohol-related.

Jeff - based in the maxillo facial surgery unit - revealed that the majority of his patients are boys aged between 12 and 19.

He added: "Most of the attacks we are seeing are between young lads who know each other. The weapon of choice seems to be the Stanley blade.

"It's easy for them to get a hold of but they inflict terrible injuries. We're seeing at least one so-called 'Glasgow smile' a week - that's where the mouth is slashed right round to the ear.

"Kids are also turning up with machete and sword injuries. Those are a huge problem because the blades are so long they cut right through to the bone."

A quarter of those treated end up returning with MORE knife wounds.

null

Jeff, above, who has been based at the hospital for ten years, added: "We call them our 'frequent flyers'.

"These guys turn up time and time again with the same types of injuries. But we've got to find a way to turn that tide - one scar for life really is one too many."

The worst injury Jeff has witnessed was a gruesome stabbing inflicted with a kitchen knife.

He said: "The victim had been stabbed through both lungs, the liver and the spleen.

"The blade had been driven so far into his eye it punctured the socket and cut an artery in his brain.

"The guy turned up at hospital with the handle sticking out of his eye - it was awful.

null

"We saved him but the damage was horrendous."

And it seems no one is safe from the rising tide of violence. Jeff told us: "Recently I treated a lad who'd just come to Glasgow to study. He was jumped and slashed in the face. He's scarred for life.

"People are being left with terrible lifelong injuries for simply being in the wrong place."

An initiative launched at the Southern General four months ago has tried to curb the violence by telling victims about the dangers of carrying knives.

Jeff added: "We need to stop kids leaving home with a weapon."

The News of the World has been fighting for action on knives with the Save Our Streets campaign."

We want mandatory sentences for knife carriers, an end to thugs being freed halfway through their sentences and more victims' rights.

This article has 1 comment