Research shows that inner-city violence can be as traumatizing as war. A program in Philadelphia is pioneering new ways to treat the urban wounded.
The fight that started Keith Davis on a path to a new life began when he was buying marijuana. It was early afternoon on Aug. 8. As he tells it, he was in at his usual hangout in North Central Philadelphia, in front of an abandoned church at 18th and Ridge. He was taking too long mulling over his purchase, and another man got impatient and told him to go buy his stuff somewhere else.
“I go wherever I want to go,” said Davis. The man said some things back. A fight broke out, which ended when the man pulled out a knife and stabbed Davis in the abdomen and left arm.
Davis, who was 21, was still punching at the man even as he watched the knife go in. He saw the blood, but he felt no pain. He thought about calling an ambulance. “But I don’t want to pay $2,000 for an ambulance,” he said. And an ambulance would probably mean police — nobody wanted that. “I ain’t no snitch,” Davis said in December, recalling his thinking. Hahnemann University Hospital’s emergency department, a place well known to Davis and his friends, was a little over a mile away. He started to walk.
[For more of this story, written by Tina Rosenberg, go to http://news.yahoo.com/battling...risis-194336514.html]
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