Dubai: Roj Pascual, a Dubai pupil who survived a school stabbing incident, spent his 14th birthday in hospital on Thursday as doctors ruled out the need for surgery to deal with a lung damage.
The eighth-grader suffered severe injuries after he was stabbed four times by a seventh grader inside a classroom at The Philippine School (TPS) in Rashidiya on Tuesday morning.
Roj’s schoolmates surprised him with a cake brought to his bedside at Rashid Hospital where an impromptu party was held.
The victim, still bandaged and with probes monitoring his vital signs, obliged and blew out the candles as family and schoolmates cheered.
Roj was stabbed once in the back, twice in his left arm and once on his left side.
On Thursday, he was in high spirits.
His mother Devani said: “We thank God he’s recuperating.”
Doctors had earlier inserted a tube into his body to drain the blood that accumulated in one of his lungs punctured in the attack. A tube is attached to his nose to help him breathe.
“Doctors told us there’s a 90 per cent chance that an operation may no longer be necessary,” said a Devani, who works for an industrial company in Jebel Ali.
Doctors had said on Tuesday they had found blood in one of his lungs.
Police earlier told Gulf News that the patrol team who rushed to TPS had found out that Roj and the other school boy, identified as R.O., had had a brawl at around 11am on Tuesday inside the latter’s classroom.
Roj earlier said he confronted the seventh grader for allegedly flashing a finger at him twice. He said he was stabbed using what looked like a military or camping knife.
“We’re hoping he will be discharged from hospital next week. We’re thankful he survived this ordeal.”
Devani said they will leave it to UAE authorities to deal with the incident and hope education authorities would do what it takes to prevent the incident from recurring.
