“We’re going to have to take it one day at a time,’’ Claude Desrosiers said of his wife, Astrid, who is home after the Oct. 27 attack.
(Pat Greenhouse/ Globe Staff)
MGH doctor returns home after stabbing
“We’re going to have to take it one day at a time,’’ Claude Desrosiers said of his wife, Astrid, who is home after the Oct. 27 attack.
(Pat Greenhouse/ Globe Staff)
BELMONT - There were balloons, a few curious neighbors, and a horde of reporters.
Two weeks after a patient repeatedly stabbed her at a Massachusetts General Hospital clinic, Dr. Astrid Desrosiers returned home yesterday, with casts on both forearms and deep scars, but with enough strength to walk through her front door.
“She’s just happy to be back home,’’ her husband, Claude, said after escorting her inside. “She looks forward to getting back to her patients. She loves her patients.’’
Desrosiers, a 49-year-old instructor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, the mother of grown children, and a celebrated doctor in the area’s Haitian community, is recovering from the injuries she suffered on Oct. 27, when police say Jay Carciero, 37, of Reading attacked her.
Off-duty security guard Paul Langone fatally shot Carciero. After a preliminary investigation, prosecutors called the shooting justified.
About noon yesterday, after having been escorted by local police cruisers, Desrosiers exited a vehicle driven by her husband and walked past Mylar balloons that read “Welcome Home’’ and “Get Well.’’ She declined to comment.
Moments later, her husband came outside to address reporters.
“We appreciate everything that everyone has been doing,’’ he said. “All the prayers, believe me, they have been working. From the way she was, you would have to see it to believe it.’’
A large scar on her left cheek was visible, and wound marks peeked out from under the casts on her forearms.
Colleagues said she is in as good spirits as possible and was receiving a lot of support.
“It’s going to be a long recovery, because of the multiple stab wounds,’’ said Carline Desiré, executive director of the Association of Haitian Women in Boston, which has featured the doctor as a speaker at several of their events. “But she’s a strong woman, and she’ll recover.’’
Desiré said the near-death experience has reinforced Desrosiers’s sense of mission.
“She feels that this is an opportunity to continue to make a difference in the world,’’ she said.
It was not clear yesterday when she would return to work. “We’re going to have to take it one day at a time,’’ her husband said.
David Abel can be reached at dabel@globe.com. 
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