Stabbing Survivor

By Justin McDaniel | Published December 7, 2023

“ After I had got stabbed, I started telling my friends to leave me alone and let me sleep. I honestly thought I was going to die,” Those were the words of Jahod Matthews, the Kean University student who was the victim of a stabbing incident on campus back on Sept. 19 of this year.

Going from just walking back to your dorm to fighting for your life in just a few minutes sounds scary and even unbelievable for a lot of people and Matthews had a first-hand experience of that after being harassed and then attacked by some young juveniles who were on campus. The incident that happened just near the basketball courts led to every student, staff, faculty, and emergency contact being notified about what had occurred.

“ They were causing trouble in the area and kept running into people with their bikes on purpose and I knew they were coming to us next. So when he tried to run into us I cut him off and he ended up falling. After they came around again doing the same thing one of the guys tried to punch my friend so we all just started fighting. That’s when one of the two guys came up to me with a knife and started chasing me and while running I ended up running into the stop sign and he was able to stab me.” said Matthews. “ I definitely did think I was going to die, I remember telling my friends to leave me alone and to let me sleep so I definitely thought for a while that I was going to die.” 

Being stabbed in his side, Matthews sustained injuries to his stomach and diaphragm and required emergency surgery in order to save his life. And if not for the quick thinking of his friends and 

the quick-acting of the Kean police the situation could have been worse. Matthews would then be stuck in his hospital bed for about a week as he recovered from surgery.

“There were times when everyone including myself thought I wasn’t going to make it, I couldn’t move for a week straight at first. I’m just happy now to be healing,” said Matthews, and since he had lost a lot of blood from the stabbing Matthews was stuck in a hospital bed for a few weeks before being able to get up and move around.

“ About the third week, I was able to move around to the point I was tired of being there, I just wanted to be able to see all my people again,” said Matthews.

Now over two months later inthe midst of his recovery, Matthews is back at school and back to his regular schedule with classes. Still recovering from surgery on his stomach and diaphragm, patience has been key for Matthews as quick movements aren’t good in the recovery process.

“ Before when first getting back to campus I was really weak for the first couple weeks but now it just feels like I did an ab workout. It’s been some soreness but it’s manageable,” said Matthews. “ Right now I can’t run, work out, or do anything that very active right now so that part has been frustrating. Especially that I was going to the gym at a very consistent rate before this now I’m kinda stuck more.”

But despite such an unfortunate situation happening to Matthews he still manages to overcome this fear and does not let it take away from his time at Kean. Appreciating life more has been big for Matthews after seeing how quickly your life can be taken away from you. When on the topic about how he’s handled this mentally being afraid has not even crossed his mind. Although the doubts still come and go he’s not letting go of his positive outlook. 

“Life goes on, grasping the concept of almost dying it took a lot and was a lot to digest. It was bad but like I said the pain gets less and less every day I’m just waiting for it to totally heal. I think I should be good by January,” said Matthews.

---