Slash

my 19 year old pt was walking his grandma to church last friday night when a couple of guys from out of no where jumped out of the bushes and stabbed him 5 or 6 times. He had never seen them before and has absolutely no idea what provoked them. Luckily his grandma was unscathed.

His stab wounds, however, were significant. One went thru his diaphragm, one into his heart, and several piercing his bowel. He has had multiple surgeries, including a bilateral skin graft from his upper thighs to his abdomen, and a tracheostomy. But the pain is not so bad---he is super tough---just wait til he gets out of the hospital, he'll find those guys, who ever they are.

I go to check in on my super strong, bad ass 19 yr old knife fight patient, and he is happily (although he is tearing up from the pain on his legs) lying in bed glued to the tv, premiering sponge bob square pants. The little yellow square is running around on the big screen, and that's when it hit me. My 19 yr old "slash" is a little kid trapped in a big scary adult world. He was somehow forced into this "bad ass" lifestyle, when all he would rather be doing is watching cartoons, selling lemmonade at the street corner, riding his bike through the community.

There is no doubt there will be some sort of "revenge" on his behalf. And his predator will be lying in the bed next to him watching barney or pokemon.