Knife Attacks and Gun-Shot Wounds on the Rise in Sweden

Juno News
January 7, 2014

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‘The increase has lead to Swedish surgeons turning to countries with more experience from such injuries’

One in ten cases at the trauma unit at Karolinska Hospital have been injured by a knife or a shotgun,

The emergency wards at hospitals in Sweden’s three biggest cities see more people stabbed by knives or shot at, than ten year ago, Swedish Radio News reports. The increase has lead to Swedish surgeons turning to countries with more experience from such injuries, like for example the US and South Africa, to learn more.

Back in 2003, 4-5 percent of the injuries came from so called “penetrative violence”, such as gunshots and knife wounds. Today, it is more like ten percent, according to the trauma unit at Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm.

Surgeons at the hospital are now trained to better deal with the injuries, and among the teachers are surgeons from the US and South Africa, where the “penetrative violence” is between 30 and 50 percent, says Louis Riddez, chief surgeon at Karolinska.