Joiner stabbed in beer garden attack 'would have died if he wasn't bodybuilder'
A dad is lucky to be alive after he was stabbed in the neck in a beer garden on New Year's Eve.
Anthony Scarff, 50, was ringing in 2024 at The Blue Bell pub in Shaw, Oldham when he saw a pal being attacked by a group of young men. As he went to intervene, a knife-wielding stranger plunged the four-inch blade into his neck.
The group, which was made up of four men in their 20s, had gone into the beer garden looking for one person before attacking others. His wife, Danielle, 36, was at home with the kids when she received the terrifying call telling her he'd been hurt. Distraught, she ran to the pub to find her beloved husband covered in blood.
“I applied pressure to his neck by putting my thumb in the wound,” the skin specialist said. “He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It swelled up to a golf ball so I knew he was bleeding internally. I just thought he was dead; it was horrific. It only took 30 seconds to a minute to run there but it felt like a lifetime.”
The attacker was a complete stranger (Danielle Scarff/MEN Media)
The 50-year-old was celebrating the new year at the time (Danielle Scarff/MEN Media)Anthony’s friend rushed him to Oldham Royal Hospital where the 50-year-old was immediately sent for emergency surgery. Surgeons were called in from North Manchester General Hospital to help remove a blood clot and fit a fluid drain. Anthony was discharged three days later with 12 staples in his neck, Manchester Evening News reports.
Baby boy has spent his life in hospital as doctors are 'scared' to discharge him
Doctors told the dad if it wasn’t for his bodybuilding hobby, which has helped strengthen the muscles in his neck, the knife would have gone deeper and he would have died. "They said he was extremely lucky to be alive,” Danielle said. “They had never seen anything like it and that normally he would be dead. It’s just obviously horrific. He’s just been very shaken up. Because he’s done bodybuilding in the past, he’s got some big muscles in his neck. It stopped the blade going down any further.”
Surgeons were called in from North Manchester General Hospital to help remove a blood clot and fit a fluid drain. Anthony was discharged three days later with 12 staples in his neck. Doctors told the dad if he wasn’t for his bodybuilding hobby, which has helped strengthen the muscles in his neck, the knife would have gone deeper and he would have died.
He was told he is lucky to be alive (Danielle Scarff/MEN Media)Anthony says he’s also struggled mentally since the assault. “It’s been horrendous,” he said. “It just plays on your mind.
“I can’t go to work; I can’t earn. It’s just very stressful. If you go out and you see a 20-year-old lad, you’re looking at them thinking you will be attacked.”
A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police told the MEN no arrests have been made yet in relation to the incident.
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