Off duty paramedic slashed with knife in front of children in Rosebud

AN off-duty paramedic who was slashed in front of her two young children in Rosebud said her attacker tried to stab her in the neck. The woman was left with wounds “a few centimetres away from being life ending”.

A PARAMEDIC has been slashed with a knife in front of her two children at Rosebud.

The woman, who was off duty but in uniform, was buckling her young children into their car seats when a man reached into the vehicle and stabbed her.

Ambulance Victoria chief executive Tony Walker said she suffered a 15cm chest wound in Friday night’s “horrendous attack” near the Point Nepean Highway.

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“Thank goodness it hasn’t gone deeper than a superficial wound — it was a few centimetres away from being life-ending,” he told 3AW.

“She finished her day shift, picked up her kids, and has gone to pick up dinner when she has been assaulted by someone who we think we may have treated in the past.”

Police arrested a man, 47, who was assisting inquiries.

Mr Walker said the “disgusting” assault had left him speechless.

“You think you’ve seen the worst of things … it’s pretty horrendous. And for that to happen in front of her kids is absolutely abhorrent,” he said.

Ambulance Victoria CEO Tony Walker. AAP Image/Julian Smith

United Voice ambulance secretary Danny Hill said the attack had “sent shockwaves” through paramedics.

“It’s the call no union official wants to get, but sadly given the assaults on paramedics tending to escalate, it’s a call you expect to get,” he said.

Dismissing suggestions that paramedics not wear their uniforms while off duty, he said: “The problem is with the individual who chooses to attack us. We’re proud to be in our uniform,” Mr Hill said.

And he praised the response from other paramedics and Ambulance Victoria ­managers.

“People have been offering to give up leave so she could take as much time as she needed,” Mr Hill said.

United Voice ambulance secretary Danny Hill.

Health Minister Jill Hennessy’s spokesman said Victoria’s “paramedics are not punching bags”.

“Our paramedics do a wonderful job saving the lives of Victorians and it’s never OK that they’re attacked … our thoughts are with the mother, her children and their family at this difficult time,” he said.

The assault is the latest in a string on paramedics this year.

The Andrews Government has introduced mandatory jail sentences for assaults on emergency service workers.

But shadow attorney general John Pesutto said the reforms did not go far enough: “Attacks on … emergency workers are now far too common and need to be met with the full force of the law.”

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