On the frontline in the hospital where kids are rushed in with knife wounds
17.12.2023 - 07:59
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
This year, Greater Manchester has seen devastating headlines of children suffering life-changing injuries in the wake of violence.
At the start of November, tragic images emerged of a police scene surrounding a children’s play area after two 16-year-olds were stabbed and rushed to hospital in an ‘altercation’ involving a large group. In September, a murder probe began following the death of a 14-year-old boy, with a child of the same age being arrested for a stabbing in Harpurhey.
A handful of people are trusted to treat these victims of violence – and they’re trying to make sure they see fewer and fewer children with injuries they should never have had inflicted upon them.
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Hospitals form a vital frontline against violence unfolding in Greater Manchester.
The - and there, doctors see first-hand the way violence is harming young people as they rush to help victims coming in with serious injuries.
Dr Rachel Jenner is a consultant in the emergency department at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, the paediatric major trauma centre for the region.
She's also clinical lead for the Greater Manchester Violence Reduction Unit, which works with young people aged between 10 and 25, and their families, to develop projects and activities to address the underlying causes of violence - and try to set them on a safer path.
“We take patients up to an hour’s ambulance travel time for us, so we will see young people with serious injuries brought in by ambulance from all over Greater Manchester, and into parts of Lancashire and Cheshire,” the