Dublin

Girl stabbed in Parnell Square attack released from hospital after 281 days

Parents say ‘new chapter’ is beginning in daughter’s rehabilitation; Dublin attack in November saw two other young children and a carer injured

A young girl who was stabbed in Dublin late last year has been released from Temple Street Children’s Hospital. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA Wire
A young girl who was stabbed in Dublin late last year has been released from Temple Street Children’s Hospital. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA Wire
Sarah Slater
Tue Sept 03 2024 - 12:34

A child who was among several people stabbed in an incident on Dublin’s Parnell Square late last year has been released from hospital.

The girl, aged five at the time of the November 23rd attack, was critically injured and spent 281 days in Temple Street Children’s Hospital before being released on Friday.

In an update published on the GoFundMe website, the girl’s family said: “Today we begin a new chapter in our darling’s rehabilitation or as we call it ‘The Gym’. The hope is that she is able to swallow food, move her arms and legs more purposefully, and utter some more sounds.”

The girl’s parents last month said their lives were “turned upside down” by what happened to their daughter on what started out as a “normal” day.

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“At 1.45pm, I got the worst phone call I could ever get: ‘Something happened! Your daughter was stabbed in front of the school’,” they said. “I ran over and saw a horrific site. I saw my little girl lying on the ground. Doctors and paramedics trying to get her heart beating and air in her lungs. She was brought back to life by the amazing team at Temple Street Children’s Hospital.”

The family said some people had asked why it has taken the girl so long to recover and if she will ever be the same as before. “The human brain is a very complex organ. Deprive it of oxygen for too long and the body suffers. The longer it takes to get it working again, the longer it is to regain function,” they said, adding that their “little warrior” has a few things going for her in that she is young, was healthy before the attack and has a “great team working with her”.

The multiple stabbing outside Coláiste Mhuire on Parnell Square left two other young children and a carer injured.

Riad Bouchaker (50) is currently before the courts charged with three counts of attempted murder, one of producing and possessing a kitchen knife, three counts of assault causing harm and one of assault causing serious harm.