A violent encounter erupted outside of Tufts Medical Center in Boston last Friday, when John Baglio, a K-8 music teacher from Malden, was severely slashed on the face by an assailant. In what seems to have been an unprovoked attack, Baglio and his wife, Jennifer, who had stepped outside the hospital for air while visiting their hospitalized son, became sudden targets of aggression.
Baglio required an intensive medical response following the altercation. "You're visiting your child one minute and the next minute you're fighting for your life," Baglio told WHDH. The resulting facial wound was severe enough to necessitate more than 50 stitches and a concussion was also reported. The confrontation was brief, spanning just two minutes but the damage was extensive, as Baglio later described to WCVB, "I knew he had something in his right hand, but I could not see it. So we're like hockey fighting each other."
Boston Police have since arrested 45-year-old Wilfredo Burgos in connection to the attack. Burgos, who authorities have identified as homeless, is currently being held without bail and faces charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. A search of the crime scene yielded a broken crack pipe, however, Jennifer Baglio clarified in an interview with WCVB that her husband's injuries were not consistent with a wound from such an object. "The guy maybe had a crack pipe in his pocket, but I believe they didn't find the weapon," she said.
During the attack, Jennifer, an EMT, was able to promptly summon help by activating a nearby emergency call box. "It was pretty scary to just see face wide open and honestly, of all the things that I've seen in my line of work, this was the worst," she expressed, as she recounted the ordeal to WCVB. "The EMT in me left. I was just the scared wife." Her fast reaction brought Tufts security and medical staff to the scene swiftly to attend to her husband.
As reported by WHDH, the attack has left a deep emotional impact on John Baglio, who is struggling to come to terms with the traumatic experience, saying, "It just seems like it’s really hitting me. Not just how close I came to, you know, possibly being killed but just the trauma of it." The Baglios' son is thankfully now out of the hospital. Wilfredo Burgos is expected to appear in court on Thursday to face his charges.
