Reckless hunting behavior

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To the Editor:

I am the person who was recently injured in the hunting accident at the State Forest on Martha’s Vineyard. I am writing in the hope that someone who knows the stupid and ignorant people who walked into the middle of our hunt and began spraying the woods with buckshot will remind them that what they did was reckless and almost killed a physician, father of three and grandfather of eight.

After a 10-minute ride to the emergency room, I developed respiratory distress and was intubated by Dr. [Tim] Tsai and eventually transferred to Massachusetts General Hospital by helicopter and cared for by a trauma physician who had recently returned from Iraq with the Special Forces.

I am home now recuperating. A pellet struck my neck but missed most of the vital structures and lodged in my vertebra, where it remains. It is only through the grace of God that I am alive and functioning.

I will not go into all of the miracles that have aided my recuperation; however, please be advised that there are a confluence of events, each of which is a miracle.

Again, for the ignorant people who invaded our hunt, I hope that they are apprehended only so that this will never happen again. They have destroyed a 50-year history of deer hunting and camaraderie between my predecessors and the Islanders, especial the Ben David family, whose children have maintained this friendship.

Joseph R. Asaf, MD
Centerville