‘My lungs felt like they were filled with blood’: Stab victim reveals reality of knife crime

As we pulled back the hospital curtain, he was hunched over and clearly in pain.

He had climbed off the hospital bed to greet us with a polite smile, then hobbled back to lie down again.

Every breath was uncomfortable, but he wanted to share the horrible reality of knife crime.

“I’ve never in my life been stabbed so I don’t know how it’s meant to even feel,” he said.

“The pain came when I realised the blood’s just spitting out of the side of my rib cage and that’s when I started panicking.

“My lungs felt like they were filled with blood… I thought each breath that I take, I’m going to drown in my own blood.

“I just felt as though I was slowly slipping away.”

Paramedics helped save his life and got him to the hospital in Manchester.

Sky News cannot name the young victim or go into the details of the attack because the police are investigating his case.

We were alongside a support worker called Favour, who is part of a growing team called Navigators. They go into hospitals to help young victims of violence.

While checking on how his recovery is going, she gently asked what he wanted to do next.

“You should have the right to feel safe,” she said to him.

“So don’t blame yourself for what happened… we are going to be there to help you.”

‘Scarring and traumatic’

In a corridor outside the major trauma ward at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, Favour said: “They are often scared, often really tired from being in hospital.

“It does stay with you, not just for a couple of weeks, but it can go on for months, years, because it is something very scarring and traumatic.

“Having someone to talk to, being able to be very vulnerable with… that can lead you to find different spaces that are safe for you, can make a huge difference.”

In the adjacent Children’s Hospital in Manchester, we met the clinical lead at the Greater Manchester Violence Reduction Unit.

Dr Rachel Jenner is a senior consultant who expanded her emergency department work into the wider mission of violence reduction after treating one particular young stab victim.

“When he arrived at the hospital, he was obviously very distressed and stressed,” she said. “A little bit later on, when things were stable, I asked him if he wanted me to call his mum.

“When I asked that question, he just kind of physically crumpled on the bed and just looked like the vulnerable child that he was, and that was really impactful for me.”

‘Positive results’

The Violence Reduction Unit was established in 2019 with a commitment from the city’s authorities to work together better to prevent violence and deal with it efficiently when it occurs.

Dr Jenner still treats young knife crime victims, but revealed the number of stab-related admissions is falling in her hospital.

“The trend is downwards,” she confirmed. “We’ve definitely seen some positive results.”

The latest statistics in England and Wales show the number of hospital admissions for assault by a sharp object fell by 3% to 3,735 admissions in the year ending September 2024.

“We’re never complacent,” Dr Jenner said. “You reality check yourself all the time, because obviously if… someone gets stabbed, then it’s quite possible that I’ll be treating them.”

She said the Navigators are crucial to working with young patients.

“They have a really different way of engaging with young people, they’re much better at it than many other professionals,” she said.

“It’s not a one-size-fits-all model, they actually wrap around that support according to circumstances… that’s a really positive improvement.”

Tacking violence ‘like infectious disease’

Dr Jenner added: “We try and take a public health approach to violence reduction. In the same way that we would address an infectious disease, if we can use those methods and principles to look at violence.

“Not just reacting when it happens, but actually looking at how we can prevent the disease of violence, that in the long term will have a bigger impact.”

The key is teamwork, Dr Jenner said. Collaboration between the police, community leaders, victim support, health workers and people in education has noticeably improved.

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Children describe knife crime threat

The hospital also sends consultants into schools to teach pupils how to stop bleeds as part of an annual nationwide initiative that reaches 50,000 young people.

At a Stop The Bleed session in Bolton, Greater Manchester, we met 11 and 12-year-olds growing up with the threat of knife crime.

One Year 7 boy said: “There was a stabbing quite near where I live so it does happen, but it’s very crucial to learn how to stop this bleed and how to stop deaths.”

Another two friends talked about a boy their age who had been involved in an incident with a knife.

“No one would expect it for someone that young,” one said. “They’re just new to high school, fresh out of primary, and they shouldn’t just be doing that, too young.”

‘We are dealing with it every day’

Their school has decided to tackle the problem of knife crime head-on rather than pretend it isn’t affecting their pupils.

The pastoral lead at the school, Sanaa Karajada, told Sky News: “We are dealing with it every single day, so we have policies and procedures in place to prevent any escalations in our schools or in the community.

“It is very, very worrying and it’s upsetting that [students] are having to go through this, but you know we’ve got to be realistic… if we are shying away from it, we’re just saying it’s not a problem.

“But it is a problem within the community, it’s a problem in all of the UK.”

The government has pledged to halve knife crime within a decade.

These signs of progress may offer some hope, but there is still so much work to do.