Yahoo Finance Tommy Pham thankful to be alive, playing again after strip club stabbing
San Diego Padres outfielder Tommy Pham is nearly completely recovered after he was stabbed in the back outside of a San Diego strip club last year, and is back in the lineup for the team’s first spring training game.
Pham, however, knows how fortunate he is to even be back out on the field at all following the altercation that left him needing 200 stitches.
“The doctor here basically told me that if I wasn’t so muscular, I might be dead or paralyzed,” Pham said Sunday, via USA Today. “So I’m lucky to even be here to play. I thought I wasn’t going to be able to play again.”
Tommy Pham stabbed in back at strip club
Pham, 32, was stabbed in the back in the parking lot outside of the Pacers Showgirls International strip club in San Diego on Oct. 11.
Pham has since filed a lawsuit against the strip club, alleging that the club’s private security “escalated the risk” to him by confronting and antagonizing the participants in the altercation, and that the club did not contact law enforcement. He claims that he was “trapped” inside the club when the fight broke out, and was stabbed “without any provocation” while approaching the valet stand.
The Padres initially said that Pham sustained a non-life-threatening slash wound to his lower back. In his lawsuit, however, Pham said he was left with “catastrophic injuries."
No arrests have been made, and an investigation is ongoing.
“When I got stabbed, and I was being rushed to the hospital, I was on the phone with [general manager A.J. Preller] and the training staff,” Pham said, via USA Today. “I thought I wasn’t going to be able to play. … The way I look at it, my time wasn’t quite yet. So, God kind of has other plans for me.”
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