Frontline
The Danger of Slashing: Human Anatomy By Robert Kaiser
46 | Australian Security Magazine
O
n Monday morning, the 18th April 2018, a 8 yearold boy left home with a kitchen knife and walked into his central Minnesota elementary school. Minutes later he slashed three fellow pupils aged 8, 9 and 13 years-old, all of which requiring surgery. One doesn’t require intense knife training to cause damage to others, and that you, as a homeland security professional or enforcement agent, must subsequently accept that anyone carrying a knife represents a real danger, even if he/she looks like he/she hasn’t got a clue what he/she is actually doing. Slash resistant clothing has been developed to effectively improve your personal safety, by offering cut/slash protection to highly vulnerable areas, to which common body armour (bullet or stab resistant vest) do not offer any protection whatsoever. To help you understand why this type of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) makes real operational sense, please allow me to explain some extremely important things about human anatomy and its relevance to combat… or in this case your defence and survival. For the purpose of this article I will not go into the ‘stabbing’ motion/action of using a knife. I have extensively covered this in the past and will continue to cover this type of attack in dedicated articles in the future. The following really highlights the potentially irreparable and even deadly consequences of being slashed by either someone who knows what he/she is doing, or by someone who just wildly swings that knife and ultimately may well get ‘lucky’. I do not claim to be a medical expert, hence please forgive me if something isn’t 100% medically accurate or precise phrased. However, based on my understanding of this
subject matter I can assure you that the following information is reliable enough to be taken serious, and for you to either consider issuing your team with slash resistant clothing, or indeed for you to consider wearing it whilst on duty. Those who know how to use a knife effectively will understand when it comes to knife combat, stabbing and blood loss will not necessarily and quickly incapacitate an attacker. Combat expert and author Michael Janich did an excellent research on this topic, and after careful analysis of forensic data, modern trauma medicine and consulting with experts on this subject matter, Janich’s research concluded the very same. In fact, in an article titled “The Realities of Knife Stopping Power”, Janich mentioned a case wherein a combatant received 50 stab wounds and still managed to fight for five minutes before collapsing due to collective blood loss, and I personally have witnessed cases of individuals who have survived multiple stabbings and made their way home without any assistance. In a self-defence situation (or indeed in a situation where your operation requires you to incapacitate an assailant) every single second counts and can indeed make the difference between life and death. If you wound an attacker, but he still has the ability to do the same to you, you may still die. When/if someone is knowledgeable enough and his intention is to immediately incapacitate you, you really have to understand human anatomy. To hold anything in your hand, such as a baton, CS gas or shield (if you are a police officer), the muscles of your forearm contract and pull on the flexor tendons, which pass through your wrist and are attached to your fingers. If someone cuts