ESSEX COUNTY, Va. – Two surgeons who helped save the life of a 12-year-old boy allegedly stabbed by a sex offenderspoke exclusively to WTVR CBS 6 reporter Jon Burkett about the skills that help them save the child's life Wednesday.
Crime Insider sources said the boy was stabbed twice in the neck and shoulder by 34-year-old Duron Penn, a wanted sex offender sources said had been living with the boy’s family for weeks at a home off Brian Place in Essex County.
The ER at Riverside Tappahannock Hospital.
The 12-year-old boy, who Crime Insider sources said had lost a lot of blood, survived thanks to the quick-thinking ambulance crew and the nearby staff at Riverside Tappahannock Hospital.
In fact, the child was treated by two skilled combat veteran surgeons along with a host of other team members that would eventually save his life.
"When we’ve got somebody who comes in unstable for transfer then we have to be able to take care of it," Dr. Wirt Cross Jr. said.
Dr. Cross.
Cross and Dr. Reginald Mason, both military veteran combat surgeons, worked on the boy, but added that he is alive because of the entire team.
“Having the experience of taking care of trauma patients in a combat situations makes dealing with it in a hospital situation much easier because you don’t have the external stress," Cross said.
Dr. Mason.
Mason said saving the boy was a fantastic feeling.
"That’s what we’re trained to do," Mason said. "And both Dr. Cross and I had the opportunity to co-operate on him. And do the things that needed to be done. And the folks that were all there with us did their jobs as well.”
Once the boy was deemed stable, he was med-flighted to VCU Medical Center where Crime Insider sources said he is in stable condition.
Penn, who was charged with malicious wounding, remains behind bars p at the Middle Peninsula Regional Security Center.
