I had an interesting experience about two months ago that I thought would be helpful to share.

I was attacked outside the hospital where I work by some guy trying to force himself through an employees only door as I was going to work.

I had just walked past the guy standing by the ambulance ramp at the ER, he was holding his ziplock baggie of prescription bottles standing calmly looking up and down the street. I've seen this scene hundreds of times where someone came to the ER for whatever reason and was now waiting for someone to come give them a ride home. Nothing out of the ordinary. I work with psychiatric patients and can usually pick up on some body language that indicates they're about to escalate.

As I was holding the door open for another coworker (a gentleman always holds the door for a lady), I just happen to look back to see if anyone else was coming as the door locks automatically when closed, and saw this guy in a dead run coming for the door. He was approximately 10 feet away when I spotted him. It didn't "feel" right/look right....so I went to close the door and block him from entering. He grabbed me and the door forcefully and tried to force the door open screaming at me not to "crush my f*cking hand" as I was pushing the door closed. When he went to grab me around the neck, I took him down and sat on him until the security and police arrived.

Lessons learned:

1) When something happens, it happens fast.

I'm trained and experienced in noticing behavior that could escalate and I didn't see anything at all. Didn't have a second to plan or anything except to react. If he had a knife, I would have never had known it until after the fact. As it was all I came away with was some bruises and a case of the jitters.

2) No matter how you think you would react, it will boil down to reflex.

I role play in my head constantly while assessing situations. What would I do if someone jumps out between cars in the parking lot? What if someone else gets attacked or collapses on the street? What if that really ugly guy starts choking in the restaurant? Not being paranoid, just practicing situational awareness.

Despite how I role played in my head. It simply boiled down to my training in handling aggressive patients. I took him down (not a text book take down by any stretch of the imagination) and held him down including holding his head to protect him from bouncing his head on the concrete. This guy just attacked me and I'm protecting him and keeping him safe because it's what I was trained to do. The irony of this is beyond my comprehension.

I don't have a concealed carry permit. Thought about it. May still do it at some point. But, it wouldn't have made a damned difference in this situation. I even have a pocket knife that I didn't even have a chance to draw much less pull a fire arm.

3) Help is available but it can't be everywhere all the time.

Security and police were there at the hospital. In fact, they were approximately 20 yards away at the time, but all this occurred out of their line of sight.

I arrive early for my shifts and sit in my car meditating before I actually go into the zoo that is my unit. This morning, a police officer saw me just sitting in my car, thought it suspicious, and after running my plates, came up to my car to check me out. I thanked the officer for checking me out and told him that was the reason that I felt safe sitting in my car with my eyes closed meditating because I know I'm being watched over. 15 minutes after that conversation, the officer was cuffing goofball and taking him away.

4) There are residual effects.

This occurred about two months ago, and I'm still finding myself getting the jitters even just typing this. I've had patients explode and be more aggressive than this guy and put up much more of a fight. But that occurred on the unit and was somewhat expected. I've tangled with bigger and more violent, and not have had any residual effects, but I get butterflies in my stomach and my hands are still shaking a little just typing this.

The issues of practice and training in our pursuit of preparedness comes up repeatedly. This really drove home how much of our preparedness will boil down to reflex and habit. You really don't have time to think.

So everyone, practice, practice, practice. Practice with your gear. Practice starting your campfires with gloves on to mimic having to do it with cold, numb hands. Practice your CPR until you can do it without thinking because when it's your loved one that's stopped breathing your mind will go blank. Practice finding your stuff in the dark...

And most importantly, practice telling the important people in your life that you love them every single day.

I'm happy to hear that you are ok and I hope that all it leaves you with in the weeks to come is some introspection. It sounds like as an employee of the hospital, you instinctively reacted to protect it by attempting to deny this person access. For that I applaud you.

At the same time, people sometimes overlook the safest option of all -- RETREAT. You may have simply been able to side step this guy without putting yourself in harm's way and allow the security inside to deal with him after raising the alarm. Distance can be your friend whether or not you are carrying a concealed weapon or not. Building distance from the treat should always be something you keep in mind if its an available option. It may not be if you are traveling with family or others are threatened.

Although I always hope a Good Samaritan is around if I need help, its important to weigh that willingness to help a fellow human being against the unknown threat.

Scary ordeal, good to know you're okay. PTSD is pretty common in the aftermath.

Yeah, it is one thing to prepare for hypotheticals and quite another to experience one.

I was attacked walking home from work about a decade ago. 7:00p, dark, pleasant evening, other pedestrians out. I turned a corner, heard footsteps rapidly approaching from behind and it occurred to me it might not be a jogger.

It was a mugger (black neoprene ski mask, hood up - 6' tall). I said: "Oh my God." I braced myself (unknowingly flinging a package into someone's yard), brought my purse up and hunched over a small rod iron fence (typical of this area) and he tackled me from behind but I stayed on my feet.

As he was trying to pry my arms off my purse (not saying I should have clung to it, but that was my reflex) I remembered something I'd learned in an NRA "Refuse To Be A Victim" class: yell. Don't scream. Yell. They say to yell "fire!" but instead I yelled over and over: "No! No! No!"

Several guys came running out of nearby houses and a pedestrian who it turns out had seen this guy stalking me from the street came running around the corner.

Police showed up quickly but the perp got away. I kept my purse and the package, it turned out, was a Bible that my sister had mailed to me but which I had not yet opened.

That episode haunted me for a long while. To this day, people run up behind me at their peril - especially if I have pepper spray at the ready.

Thanks for sharing the experience. I'm glad you came through it uninjured.

Indeed, whether you're five or ninety-five, you never know when your number is up.

Glad you're OK and there's no messy legal consequences. It's hard enough dealing with the psychological consequences. You never can tell what experiences will rattle a person and it's certainly not a sign of weakness. It's just another kind of trauma that takes time to heal.

Frequently role playing what-if's in your head is an excellent habit. Unfortunately, real life tends to catch us by surprise in ways that we never role played, which means we're still often surprised and shocked when something goes down. Maybe that's why your other job-related altercations don't bother you like this one--you were already mentally prepared for them and not caught as much off guard by them as this incident? Well, enough amateur therapy from me.

Again, glad you came through all right.

+1. I'm also very glad that you are OK.

Thanks for sharing. I decided to write down your 4 lessons into one of my training books.

Pete2

Thanks a lot for sharing valuable lessons.

As for preparing, training and dealing with the aftermath of violent or otherwise traumatic situations I've read the book "on combat" by Dave Grossman with great interest. I have very little experience with such incidents (being lucky, I guess). As I understand it, that this book is held in high regard by those who by profession have to be prepared to deal with highly violent situations.

I'm glad you're ok samhain!

Great advice to practice practice practice! Self defense, first aid, cpr and any skill that you may need to use in a high stress situation. Having a well-trained autopilot can make a huge difference.

talking of cpr... remember the first rule:
'only blondes get mouth to mouth' :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR0aZX1_TD8

(999 is the UKs 911)

qjs

Yes, I live in a "distressed urban center" and am constantly aware. I play scenarios and keep fit & limber. Still, a determined attacker can... ruin your day. I've studied martial arts and was Military Police and rely more on caution & sense than my ability to fight.

Glad you came through ok and that you shared with us. Thank you. Please be sure to discuss your jitters with a co-worker at the ward.