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.