Rachel Macy, the woman who comforted one of two men fatally stabbed on a MAX train last year, is now struggling with the downtown stabbing of her 21-year-old son, who is fighting for his own life.

"All I ask is for prayers,'' Macy said.

Her eldest son was slashed and stabbed in the chest, neck, back, shoulder and head near Skidmore Fountain about 10:45 p.m. while walking to a MAX train on Wednesday after watching the July 4 fireworks downtown.

Bleeding severely, he stumbled to a food cart.

Police found her son near the food carts on Southwest Stark Street, between Second and Third Avenue. Officers administered first aid until emergency medics arrived and he was taken by ambulance to a Portland hospital, police said.

The attackers, only described as men in their 20s, were last seen walking east on Southwest Washington Street, police said. No arrest has been made.

One of the wounds Rachel Macy's son suffered.

Macy said her son suffered severe blood loss and his lungs were punctured.

"He is not well but fighting,'' she said. "Trying to be spiritually strong.''

Her 21-year-old son, her eldest child, had come recently from the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs to live with his mother in Portland.

"I should have been with him. I should have been there,'' his distraught mother said, after visiting her son in the hospital Thursday night.

But Macy believes the young man stabbed in May 2017 on a MAX train who she comforted before he died, Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, was with her son, "on my behalf.''

Taliesin's mother, Asha Deliverance, has reached out to Macy, having learned of the attack.

Two mothers of victims of senseless crimes, Macy said, adding, "We are bonded warrior women.''

"I can't turn to hatred. It will consume us,'' Macy said. "I have to behave in a civil manner in such an uncivilized world.''

Later Friday, Macy's son, speaking by phone from his hospital room, recounted that he had been walking to the MAX train and heard one or two men yelling something at him. He said he tried to ignore them and kept walking, but they came closer to him. One pushed him and soon they were rolling on the ground, he said. At one point, Macy's son said he got up and walked off. He was unaware he had been stabbed until he reached the food carts, and someone noticed his shirt was soaked in blood.

Detectives in the Portland police assault unit are investigating the attack. Anyone with information should call the detectives at 503-823-0479.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian