Machete Attack Injuries Severe
An elementary school principal severely cut while fighting off a machete-wielding attacker may never fully heal from the wounds to her hands, a hospital official said Saturday.
Norina Bentzel and two teachers subdued the attacker until help arrived Friday at the school in rural central Pennsylvania.
“She’s a real hero,” hospital spokeswoman Amy Strong said.
Surgeons at the Curtis National Hand Center at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore repaired tendons and reattached blood vessels and nerves in several fingers that were nearly severed by the machete’s 2-foot-long blade.
One of three teachers injured remained hospitalized. Six kindergartners suffered minor injuries.
William Michael Stankewicz, 55, was arrested shortly after the attack and charged with two counts of attempted homicide and assault and weapon charges. He remained jailed Saturday, with bail set at $2 million.
Stankewicz, an ex-convict and former history teacher in Baltimore, refused to say at his arraignment Friday why he was at the school.
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