My waist bones blocked the knife: Kevin Lau says his attacker showed no mercy The respected journalist looked back on the attack in the first article he has written since it happened more than two weeks ago The ex-chief editor of the Ming Pao Daily newspaper, who is recovering from six stab wounds that left him close to death, said Monday that he had not been shown mercy by his attacker and dismissed doctors suggestions that the attack was meant as a warning. Kevin Lau Chun-to’s own assessment was carried in the first of a series of articles he has penned on the Chinese-language newspaper’s website since the February 27 attack that left him critically injured. In the article, Lau said he doubted suggestions that the assailant might have shown some mercy, for whatever reason, that could have explained his survival. Instead he said that he believed his survival was simply down to the bones in his waist blocking the knife from inflicting further damage. Lau was ambushed as he got out of his car near a restaurant in Sai Wan Ho he frequents for breakfast almost a fortnight ago. No motive has been established for the attack, which police described as a classic triad hit, in which a pillion passenger leapt off a motorcycle and slashed their target from behind. “Several experienced doctors judged from my wounds that the attacker’s aim was to punish and threaten [me], rather than taking my life,” he wrote. “But by hacking a knife into the back, it could create an immense injury. A millimetre of variation could have made a big difference in result.” A surgeon later told him, Lau said, that the knife was “so sharp that even a little piece of the sternum could be cut away”. “[He said my] internal organs were not hurt because my waist bones were hard and blocked” the knife, Lau said. “The doctor’s words solved a puzzle in my heart: instead of the knifeman’s kindness and mercy, it was merely an encounter between a cold knife and hard bones, in a split second.” He revealed that some 4,000 cc of blood was supplied, “which means all my body’s blood has been replaced”. Lau also said he had remained conscious upon arriving at the hospital. “Friends visiting me asked me how I could manage to make a call to police after suffering so many stabs. “Actually I didn’t feel much pain then. Only my legs were numb and weak, my back faintly painful, and a few drops of blood were shed to my hands.”
Posted on: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 13:18:55 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015