Woman stabbed 13 times by ex-boyfriend while staying in hospital
On Tuesday, a woman who was a patient at St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach was stabbed 13 times by her ex-boyfriend while she was in the hospital.
Traci Mattox had been in the hospitals receiving treatment for stomach ulcers when her boyfriend stopped by to visit. During the first visit, she broke up with him, but then in the wee hours of the morning, he returned with a knife.
“Earlier that day he had came to the hospital and I told him, ‘I think it would be best if we just separate,’ and he didn’t give me any argument and he left the hospital,” Mattox told KTLA. “I woke up again that morning at 2:40 (a.m.) and he was there. I said, ‘You know what, like I told you earlier. I don’t even know why you’re here — it’s after visiting hours.’ “
Then, she noticed the knife.
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“I saw something shiny sticking out, and I said, ‘Do you have a knife?’ “ she recalled. “When I said that is when he hit me the first time, and he stabbed me in the back of the neck. I started screaming, ‘Help! Somebody help me!’ ”
Although Mattox fought him off, she suffered cuts to her hands, head and ears.
Mattox said that even though she screamed for help, hospital staff didn’t respond, and the hospital security not only kept her ex from entering but failed to stop him from leaving, though Long Beach police arrested him not far from the hospital.
“If somebody is in there screaming, got stabbed 13 times — help (them),” she said.
“The safety of our patients, visitors and staff is of utmost important,” hospital officials said in a statement. “We respectfully uphold the privacy of our patients and are cooperating with local authorities.”
