FELTON, Pa. — An elementary school principal who was 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 Saturday. "The first thing she said when she woke up was, 'How are the children?' and the second thing she said was, 'How are the other teachers?' "
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. Metal screws were inserted in some of Bentzel's fingers, Strong said.
One of three teachers injured remained hospitalized. Six kindergartners suffered minor injuries.
William Michael Stankewicz, 55, was arrested within 20 minutes of the attack and charged with two counts of attempted homicide and assault and weapons charges. He remained jailed on $2 million bail Saturday.
Stankewicz, an ex-convict and former history teacher in Baltimore, refused to say at his arraignment Friday why he was at the school.
"I had nothing in my hand. I will not admit that," Stankewicz said. Blaming U.S. immigration officials and congressmen, he complained about the treatment he had received during a divorce six years ago from his Russian mail-order bride.
"I begged for help and nobody gave me any help," he said.