Thursday, February 4, 2010

Mugging victim walks home with knife in back

It's REAL: Russian doctors confirm picture of mugging victim with a six-inch knife in her back is genuine

LONDON: A Russian woman who was a victim of mugging walked home without realising that the mugger had plunged a six-inch knife into her back.
Julia Popova, 22, was on her way to her home in Moscow from work, when her attacker snatched her handbag. After grappling with the man, she was left so shocked by the ordeal that she could not feel the knife in her neck, which was fractions of an inch from her spinal cord.
When she got home she told her parents she was robbed despite trying to fight with a robber to protect her bag. Her horrified parents rushed her to hospital where surgeons managed to remove the blade without damaging her spine.
“Shock had kicked in and her body prevented her from feeling any pain. She simply walked home without feeling the knife in her back,” the Sun quoted a medic as saying.
During shock, blood flow is reduced to the cells causing a decrease in pain sensitivity and often leading to the victim becoming lethargic and sleepy, he added.
HOW COULD SHE NOT KNOW THE KNIFE WAS THERE?
Shock is the body's great protector - and there are documented examples of people undergoing massive trauma to their bodies without realising it.
It is a condition which reduces the blood flow to the cells, causing a decrease in pain sensitivity and often leading to the victim becoming lethargic and sleepy.
There have been examples of car crash victims unaware that they have lost limbs and shark attack victims who do not know that they have been bitten.
Earlier this week, teenager Lydia Ward was attacked by a shark as she waded in waters off a beach in New Zealand.
Recounting her tale, she said: ‘I didn’t realise it had me in its jaws – I didn’t feel anything, then I saw some blood in the water.'

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