Police: Bergen County Man Stabs Himself In The Abdomen

A Mahwah man suffering from dementia stabbed himself in the abdomen this morning, police reported.

Police officers responded to the Cragemere section home at 5:14 a.m.; the man’s wife came into the kitchen foyer and found her 79-year-old ex-husband with a 4- to 5-inch long steak knife sticking out from the center of his abdomen, said Mahwah Police Chief James Batelli.

The man admitted to police that the wound was self-inflicted and that he was alert and conscious, Batelli said.

The man’s wife told authorities that her husband had mild dementia and other medical issues that had been getting worse recently, police said. She woke up early Tuesday morning and, when she couldn’t find him, went downstairs, and saw him when she found him holding the knife handle against his stomach, Batelli said.

A medevac unit airlifted the man from his home to the Hackensack Hospital Trauma Unit with critical injuries.