My girlfriend's throat was cut

[Smitty]

My girlfriend goes to Indiana University, and she and a group of people were walking back to their dorms from a party. Obviously, they were drunk, and just out of nowhere some dude ran up and cut all their throats. They're all fine, but it's scary because I was talking to her on the phone when it happened. There are some rumors of it happening more, sometime before it happened to her, and some after, so there was other peoples' blood on the knife when she was cut.
One weird thing: All their cuts look like they were caused by different blades or utensils. One guy's looks like a knife, my girlfriends like a very smooth razor. They're all completely different. And there have been over 6 sirens tonight (6 different times) and most of them have been ambulances, so he's probably struck again (we'll find out in tomorrow's news.)
Why would he do this? No one saw but a glimpse of him, so they have zero suspect leads. Why would he (possibly) use different blades?
My fear is disease spread, either from an intentionally infected knife or from the blood already on the knife when she got cut. I've searched for other criminal instances of this happening and I haven't found any. She's going to get tested, but most diseases and viruses take 2 to 8 weeks to show up (so she'll get tested in 2) and then another 2 weeks to get the results back. So that's at least a month that I'm not going to see her. I'm not going to risk my health to make her feel better.

But, the point of this thread is: What do you guys think the motive was? Is it possible to spread diseases this way?
One last bit of info. They know that he was definitely college age, so he wasn't some creepy guy. May have been some dude hopped up on coke, or doing some retarded initiation that is just way too extreme. But he did go "group hopping" also--he didn't seem to target anyone. He just found groups, cut them all on the throat, and ran to the next.
I'm scared and confused for her health. What do you guys think?
Smitty

[MFB]

A. Good to hear she's OK, assuming there's no virus
B. That's one crazy mother****er right there

Colleges are getting crazy nowadays and pretty soon the laws gonna crack down to the point where its a prison cause of **** like this

[Smitty]

A. Yes, but what's the probability of a virus? I really am lost when I think about this.
B. You got that right.

I'm almost scared to be around her though I know I have to be. She's planning on coming back to our town next weekend. I just want to make sure I can kiss her, man.
Smitty

[MFB]

It's very unlikely that she does have an actual virus. I mean, while it's possible to get a disease this way the chance is very unlikely as she didnt have a prior open wound on her neck, he was making the one that would have to get infected.

It seems like the tip would cut but unless he then pressed the blade to make sure blood could get in there, I doubt she'd get anything

[Canadian Mark]

Originally Posted by Smitty

A. Yes, but what's the probability of a virus? I really am lost when I think about this.
B. You got that right.

I'm almost scared to be around her though I know I have to be. She's planning on coming back to our town next weekend. I just want to make sure I can kiss her, man.
Smitty

What a brutal situation! Sorry to hear that.

Viruses are rarely spread by casual contact (kissing for the most part is casual) so I wouldn't worry too much about kissing her. I can't speak to the probability of her picking up a virus from the knife though. There's too many unknown variables to say one way or the other.

Has she been placed on any anti-viral drugs as a precaution? It's usually a question of whether to administer the drugs in low-risk situations as they can be quite hepatoxic.

My neighbor is a police officer who went through this about a month ago. He was searching a handbag in a car that they found some drugs in. He got a needle prick in his finger and went on medical leave for a couple of weeks, but the doctors didn't have him on the antiviral drugs for more than a week (the needle 'looked' clean and they were concerned with causing liver damage). So far he is testing negative for all the major viruses.

Good luck!

[connorguitar15063]

dude! im so sorry to hear about your girlfriend. they better get on that before alot worse things start happening. and mabey this will help...im not in college yet. but kids are fricken stupid, since im a kid ill admit to it. i did some dumb stuff in my life. and ur right this guy was probly all coked up. but, the chances of him doing all this **** to spread diease is iffy to me. im thinking more of a.. im stoned out of my mind and im bored so im gonna go see how many people i can cut in a night, kind of thing. to me it just sounds like another college mishaps.

[jay ratkowski]

Crazy... Very good news that she survived and is in okay condition.

Knife attacks are pretty common, but most of the incidents I recall tend to happen at parties/clubs. A random stabbing/slashing out in public with no theft/murder involved is pretty odd, at least as far as I know.

As for diseases... I'm NOT A DOCTOR, but with a previous job I worked with blood on a regular basis and we had to go through various training on dealing with it. My understanding is most common/serious blood born viruses die off when exposed to air. Hepatitis is the only one I can think of that can survive in the open for any serious length of time.

[Smitty]

Yeah, that's the one I'm worried about: Hepatitis C. No shots for that one. A and B are taken care of, but C is the problem. I know the HIV can't survive in air for long, so he had to run fast from group to group.
I'm going to see her next weekend. By then she will have hopefully done some precautionary test thing, or at least talked to doctors.
It's pretty weird that this happened. Very surreal. It's even weirder that I heard it happen. That is something I'd rather not relive.
smitty

[Wolfram]

Dude, whilst I think you should possibly be concerned about Hepatitis type virus', the risk is quite low for Hep and lower still for HIV - however more details on the incident would be required to ascertain to exact probability in lieu of an actual blood test. What I think would be more helpful and reasonable at this stage is to comfort your partner, I should imagine that it would have been quite a traumatic experience for her. I am no Doctor however so please don't take my word for it...................


P.S Rubber up!

- Wolfram

[Ibanez249]

Originally Posted by Wolfram

P.S Rubber up!

- Wolfram

LOL

Seriously though, that really sucks and I feel for the pair of you. I don't re-visit many threads once I've posted anymore but I'll keep checking this one and hoping the pair of you (especially her) are ok.

[Eco]

Wow thats crazy and im sorry to hear about it, i hope she's ok.

Its a little selfish to not see her over fears for your own safety, after an experience like that she'll probably need loved ones around her to make her feel a little more comfortable and you refusing to see her because of that is just gonna make her feel worse in my opinion.

If there was any serious risk of an infection getting passed from her to you, the doctors would stop you seeing her, they arent going to let people near her if they think she's going to infect them with something.

[CosmicDebris]

Sorry to hear that and I know your worries on both ends.

http://www.theindychannel.com/news/17409164/detail.html

To go along with what wolf said,

[DEADTUNES666]

Terrible...just plain awful. So sorry for anyone going through that.

My wife and I can't wait for our oldest to start college, because she will be taking the next step in life, and rightly we are excited for her. Then there are things like this that just buckle your knees, and make you wish she was still little enough to want to be taken care of.

I can't imagine the pain her parents must be feeling right now. If you are close to them you may want to go over and see if they need a shoulder to cry on or an ear to bend.

Good luck

[Smitty]

No parents, just grandparents. That's a completely different story that I'd rather not get into and I'm sure none of you are interested in it.

She's coming back to town next weekend. Whew!

CosmicDebris, that's the article, though they got something wrong: the girls got cut on the throat, not faces. Good job, media!
I've seen a few more articles.

She's definitely ok now, but yesterday she developed a headache that won't go away. She's also been sort of tired. But these things happen often to her. She's going to ask the other victims and see if they have any problems right now to make sure.
Smitty

[Distantshore]

That is unreal. I hope she gets better soon, although I would think the physiological scars will take the most time to heal.