The victim of a stabbing has come forward to publicly express his appreciation to the Prince George nurse whose quick actions saved his life a bit more than a year-and-a-half ago.
Rick Plasway, 48, was the person taxi cab driver John Gordon Goudreau poked in the neck during an altercation at the corner of Third and George on the night of May 14, 2008, striking his carotid artery in the process.
With blood spurting as much as a metre into the air, Plasway genuinely thought he was a goner. Fortunately, the attack occurred just a few steps away from the needle exchange where Kurt Lawton was working at the time.
When Plasway went down and Goudreau roared off, Lawton rushed over and applied his thumbs to either side of the wound to stem the bleeding.
"All the way to the hospital I kept telling him, 'you're hurting my neck, you're hurting my neck' and he told me 'shut the fuck up Rick,' he was trying to keep me quiet, eh," Plasway said with a laugh.
Plasway was not too sure what started the conflict because he was drunk at the time although he heard in court that he had tried to sucker punch Goudreau.
Court documents on the matter could not be accessed due to a publication ban but a police report states Goudreau, now serving three years for the crime, tried to run Plasway over before circling the block and continuing the fight. Lawton said he saw Goudreau cajoling Plasway who then tried to punch the cabbie through the car's open window before he was stabbed.
One thing he won't forget is the pain.
"It's a sharp burning feeling," Plasway said. "It's just like when you burn your fingers on something, it sizzles almost. As intoxicated as I was I'll remember how painful it was."
The surgeon's efforts to repair the artery, which had been 80-per-cent severed, left a roughly six-inch scar along the left side of Plasway's neck. Tubes were also stuffed down his throat and inserted into his body to keep him breathing and to draining the excess blood. In all, 19 staples were removed from the incision five days after operation.
Two days after getting out of hospital, he saw Lawton.
"I went up to him and I hugged him and I said 'you're my saviour,' and I just broke down and started crying right there," Plasway said. "Every time I see him, I feel really blessed that he was there because if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be here."
In the months that followed, Plasway, who grew up at the Lake Babine Nation reserve next door to Burns Lake, 226 km west of Prince George, moved to Smithers and then to Burns Lake, "and I fell on alcohol very, very heavy because I had a lot of really bad nightmares and that covered it up, it took away the bad feelings.
"But I was always in a good mood, I was a happy drunk, because he almost took my life but he gave me something in return and it's called love for life."
Plasway moved back to Prince George where he's living at the Ketso Yoh men's shelter and is taking six months of job training as a cook at the Native Friendship Centre's Smokehouse restaurant. And he's cut back on his drinking significantly.
"I'm in a good mood every day," Plasway said. "I go to sleep without anger or hatred. I even forgive that guy, that John, I even forgave him because I can't do nothing to hurt him, he'll pay for it in his own way.
"I even keep him in my prayers at night and when I wake up in the morning, I pray for him too."
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