A COURT has heard how a 16-year-old stab victim would have suffered “a catastrophic volume of blood loss” by the time medical experts arrived to try and save him.
Andy Wood, a former Coggeshall schoolboy, died in February last year after being stabbed in the neck in Waterson Vale on Sunday, February 12, 2023.
Elijah Clark, 18, is currently standing trial for murder at Chelmsford Crown Court.
He denies murder, manslaughter, possession of a bladed article, and actual bodily harm.
The defence claim Clark, of Gloucester Avenue, Chelmsford, was acting in self-defence.
On the sixth day of the trial, the prosecution continued to produce expert witnesses.
Christopher Paxton KC questioned forensic pathologist Dr Virginia Fitzpatrick-Swallow, asking her about Mr Wood’s movements after he was stabbed.
Mr Wood had made his way out of woodland to a nearby pavement, where he collapsed.
Dr Fitzpatrick-Swallow told the court how even a severe stab wound would not have stopped Mr Wood from leaving the scene and trying to seek help.
She said: “Although the blood loss will be immediate, profuse, and large in volume, it is not what we would call immediately incapacitating.
“They would still be capable of being conscious and performing purposeful movements, up until such time comes that their blood pressure from the loss has reduced to such a loss that they are no longer getting enough oxygen to their brain.”
She added the location of the stab wound in Mr Wood’s neck would have made it extremely challenging for paramedics to treat the 16-year-old.
A 999 call had been made at 11.32pm and an ambulance was dispatched five minutes later.
Dr Craig Gomke was treating Wood by 11.54pm.
Dr Fitzpatrick-Swallow added: “Medics, regardless of how quickly they arrive, given there are two vessels that have been injured, it is technically really difficult to get hold of them and clamp the vessels to control that bleeding.
“By the time the medical response would have got to him, he would have suffered a catastrophic volume of blood loss.”
The knife used in the stabbing was never recovered.
The trial continues.
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