00:00 As many people around you as there are, it's really lonely when it happens.
00:08 I still can't get my head around it. I've been in the ambulance service a long time.
00:28 Never anything like that's happened before. It was completely unexpected, unprovoked.
00:33 So yeah, it's still a bit of a shock. I still relive that day many, many times every week.
00:39 We arrived at the property and police pulled up just as we got there.
00:43 And we were sort of like banging on the windows, banging on the doors, calling his mobile, shouting him,
00:49 trying to look through the windows. That must have gone on for about 15, 20 minutes, the banging on the windows and doors.
00:55 He had no answer, so we were getting a little bit more concerned.
00:58 And we started to think, what if something a little bit more serious, you know, he's inside and something more serious has happened to him.
01:06 So we made the decision that we needed to get in there.
01:09 Before we got the door off, as I looked through the letterbox, the second door was shut.
01:13 And I said, oh, when we get this door off, we've got another door to get through.
01:18 When we took the door off and I stepped through, I noticed that that door had been opened.
01:24 And I said, there's somebody in.
01:26 But by that point, we were in a line and we'd started to surge forward and I happened to be at the front.
01:33 As we surged forward, he ran out from around the kitchen door with an 80 inch knife in each hand, sort of held about this height and just ran at me.
01:45 And I went backwards. Mick pushed me out of the way and stood in front of me.
01:49 And I felt him lunge forward, obviously where he'd been stabbed in the back.
01:55 And I remember taking a step back and thinking, my uniform's really wet, really wet and sticky.
02:02 And I had gloves on and as I sort of patted myself down, looked at my gloves and I realised I'm bleeding from somewhere.
02:09 So I started to check under my shirt and I saw the wound and it was just pouring out.
02:16 So I put my hand on my chest to try and stem it and I shouted, I've been stabbed, I've been stabbed.
02:24 And then I said, I'm bleeding out, I'm bleeding out because I couldn't stop the blood.
02:29 And I just remember looking down and seeing the blood coming through my fingers and I couldn't breathe.
02:40 And we pressed our buttons for control and there was so much noise and so much commotion, we didn't think we'd been heard.
02:49 And I ran into the garden, that's where I collapsed.
02:52 And the female officer was with me and I said to her, please don't let me die, please don't let me die, I've got three children.
03:00 And I was gripping onto her uniform.
03:03 And she kept saying, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, you're not going to die, I won't let you die.
03:10 Some weeks better than others, but it's been a very difficult time for me, myself and my family.
03:18 I seemed to sort of get better. I had counselling and I had therapy and everything and I seemed to get better.
03:26 I came back to work, thought I was doing OK, went to a couple of jobs that just reminded me that it just triggered something and I just crashed.
03:35 I came back about October, but I was on light duty until December, so early December really when I was back to my normal duties.
03:46 So I went off work again and that's when I think I hit my lowest, that I was really, really quite poorly.
03:53 Mentally, that's been difficult. I'm still under counselling services. I'm having trauma counselling.
04:01 I had lots of counselling and lots of help, lots of doctor's appointments.
04:07 But slowly, I've found my feet again, just did myself off, got back to where I am now.
04:14 I still struggle. I still have days where certain things will trigger a memory, but it's learning how to process them to make them manageable.
04:25 Yeah, we get a lot of support off the station. Everyone's always available to talk if necessary.
04:31 So everybody at the Hub's been fantastic all the way through.
04:35 I struggle to see justification for what you did to me and I hope you see my face and you remember mine and the anguish you caused.
04:45 All the medications I take just to feel normal and the pain I'm constantly in.
04:51 Your sentence will never give me back the year I lost.
04:56 Neither will it take away my painful and ugly scar.
05:03 Or the mental stress you caused.
05:08 However, hopefully, your sentence will be enough to act as a deterrent to others who think it is okay to attack other emergency services
05:20 when they have made a choice to simply do a job.
Comments