Stabbed In The Neck

(with a hat tip to Tammy Swofford, who provided the medical information in this blog post)

We spend much time discussing jihadists. What of their victims, particularly their surviving victims?

Image credit: Candice Hedge, from Brisbane, was viciously attacked in the city's centre on Saturday night while having a drink after work. She has described the horrifying moment her throat was slashed.

What kind of man looks a woman in the eye, then stabs her in the throat?

Candice Hedge, survivor of the London Bridge jihad attack, appears to have a "Panda tube" coming out of her nose. The Panda tube is a weighted feeding tube. Ms. Hedge probably sustained a tear in her esophagus. Thank God it was not her trachea!

From London attack: Australian woman Candice Hedge stabbed in neck (dated June 4, 2017):

An Australian woman has been left unable to speak after she was stabbed in the throat during the terror attacks in London, her family says.

Candice Hedge, 34, from Brisbane, is recovering at St Thomas Hospital following emergency surgery for a knife wound to her neck.

"She can't talk. She's been stabbed around her neck, her throat. She's all bandaged up." her mother, Kim Del Toro, told Fairfax Media.

"She went into surgery, but she's going to be fine, thank goodness."

[...]

Ms Hedge has been living in London for the past year and she was working with her boyfriend, Luke, at a bar and restaurant in the Borough Market when one of the terrorists stormed the building on Saturday night.

"He heard some commotion out the front and went out to see what was going on," Ms Hedge's mother said.

"He saw some men with knives coming toward them, and he ran back inside to see where Candice was."

In the chaos, he couldn't find her and police yelled for everyone to stay down.

Then, she came running toward him, holding her bleeding neck.

He grabbed her and the two of them took an ambulance to hospital....

Read the rest HERE.

What will Ms. Hedge's life be like from this point on? The Panda tube is typically a long-term medical device, and such a device typically requires daily or every-other-day maintenance as long as the device remains in place.

And after the Panda tube is removed, will Ms. Hedge's throat still hurt every time she swallows? A slash into any part of the body typically causes nerve damage, damage which can persist lifelong.

Survivors of jihad attacks may persevere in spirit, but their bodies may still suffer for the rest of the survivors' lives.