LONDON // Philip Spence struck at least 15 blows to his defenceless victims’ skulls.
They were left for dead on the night of the attack and continue to receive medical treatment six months later.
Maxillofacial consultant surgeon Ashraf Messiha worked at St Mary’s Hospital, in Paddington, central London, when Ohoud and Khuloud Al Najjar were admitted.
Mr Messiha said it was “miraculous” Ohoud survived the savage attack — it is thought she suffered at least six blows from the hammer.
She had a hole in her head and parts of her skull were obliterated. She has been bed-bound since the attack.
Ohoud’s upper jaw was cracked in two in an “extremely rare” vertical fracture and her teeth were smashed with what appeared to be the claw end of the hammer.
She still struggles with swallowing and has to be fed through a tube in her stomach. She is not able to speak properly and is not expected to ever fully recover her ability to speak or swallow.
Mesh titanium plates were implanted in her skull but surgeons had to wait weeks for the swelling of her brain to reduce. Her left eye was ruptured in the attack and the centre of it has been removed while the surgeons continue rebuilding her skull.
However, she has made some progress and can now make “fine” movements, such as pick up a pair of glasses and place them on her face, Mr Messiha told the court.
“In my opinion, it is a miraculous recovery and it is not just in my opinion, it is all my colleagues,” he said. “We were actually not expecting her to survive.”
Sister Fatima suffered three brain injuries, a blow to the back of her head so hard it pushed the skull into her brain and a fracture to the left side of her skull.
She was rushed to the Royal London Hospital, in Whitechapel, east London. She says she has “no bones” in her nose and appeared in court with a large bandage covering the centre of her face. She also sustained a perforated eardrum and has a damaged facial nerve.
There was injuries on her back indicating Spence continued the attack on her even as she turned to avoid the onslaught and collapsed to the floor.
Fatima was struck a minimum of three times with the hammer.
Khuloud suffered at least six blows. Her eye sockets were shattered, her forehead and jaw fractured and her facial nerve damaged.
She was unable to look left and right and looking up was painful for her because of the fractures. Her cheekbone area was “completely destroyed”, she was unable to open her mouth or swallow and her bones were bleeding into her muscle tissue.
She also sustained a fracture to her lower left arm when she had desperately tried to defend herself against the brutal onslaught.
There were no defensive injuries on Ohoud, who suffered the most violent attack. It is thought she was either asleep when Spence raised his hammer or she was knocked unconscious by the first blow.
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