WINONA, Minn. –Police were called to the Winona hospital after a man was brought in with an infected stab wound in a knee. Friends told attendants that the man, Eric Allan Gaulke, 43, of Winona, had been stabbed two days earlier during a fight over a woman-friend at an apartment on East Sanborn Street. Friends said Gaulke hadn’t wanted to go the hospital even though in pain and unable to walk. He was “too scared” to involve police, one friend said. The friends bandaged the wound, applied antibiotic ointment and ice, and gave Gaulke pain killers over the next two days. On the third day, when Gaulke turned yellow and was freezing cold and sweaty, a friend called 911. An ambulance took him to the hospital emergency room. When police arrived, they found Gaulke too weak to be interviewed. Shortly thereafter doctors decided Gaulke needed advanced care and ordered a transport to the Gundersen Level 2 trauma facilities in LaCrosse.
