Knife crime: Inside the London hospital treating the victims

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Knife crime: Inside the London hospital treating the victims
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St Giles Trust explain the work they do in supporting young people in London who have been stabbed, shot or seriously assaulted. JessicaMCUre | politicslondon |

There were almost 15,000 knife crimes recorded in London last year - the highest since records began. Clive Myrie spent several weeks at the Royal London Hospital's trauma unit, where many of the victims are treated.Lucas is at his home in Essex. At 6ft 1in, he's a big lad at just 16 years old. He lifts up a loose fitting T-shirt to reveal a neat incision wound about 6in long, running from his sternum down to his belly button.

The number of attacks averages two a night, their punctured bodies patched up before our eyes. For the staff this is normal, routine. The world they inhabit is appalling, but it's an environment one nurse says matter-of-factly she's "trained to inhabit". "It doesn't affect me, I get on with my life at home. Of course it's bad, but you know, these guys think it's normal anyway.""It's sad, yes, but they are normally nice to me, they are nice kids. I don't see their life outside this hospital. Sometimes you get some bad ones, who are angry, but that's like everywhere, you get good ones and bad ones."

Reece says that once he gets out of hospital, he will "get back on the road" . "How am I gonna make any money? Who gonna look after me?" He continues to laugh. "Look at the stitches man, it looks sick! I'm gonna snap it, innit." It's a reminder to Reece - who has sold drugs in the past - yes, you've been stabbed, but you survived, so remember what it is that puts food on your table and trainers on your feet.

Michael is admitted in an ambulance one night for what he says is his 12th stab attack. A knife wound has damaged tendons in the 24-year-old's left arm, and severed an artery in his wrist. It is annoying, he says - painful to be sure, but simply an inconvenience. "We're seeing more complex wounds in areas where bits join together on the body, junctional areas," he says, "like the neck and the groin, and that suggests a movement towards more severe wounds and more numbers of wounds. We're seeing more victims with multiple injuries."One night, a 17-year-old is admitted with several knife wounds to his buttocks. He's in a bad way, but his chances of survival are high.

"Once you find that out, you can tackle the issue and prevent that young person coming back to my operating theatre, or ending up in a morgue. A knife crime victim isn't just a problem we can fix, but a person we can help."

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