A TV star paramedic who almost died after being stabbed during a call-out has made a life-changing recovery - thanks to CIRCUS classes.
Deena Evans, 42, was knifed in the chest by a patient armed with two blades as she carried out a welfare check with a colleague in Wolverhampton on July 6, 2020.
The 8ins knife pierced her uniform and punctured her lung and she says she wouldn't be alive if crewmate Michael Hipgrave, 51, hadn't stepped in to help.
Martyn Smith, 54, was jailed for nine years in April 2021 for wounding with intent after both Deena and Michael were brutally stabbed.
Deena Evans, 42, was knifed in the chest by a patient armed with two blades as she carried out a welfare check with a colleague in Wolverhampton on July 6, 2020.
The 8ins knife pierced her uniform and punctured her lung and she says she wouldn't be alive if crewmate Michael Hipgrave, 51, hadn't stepped in to help.
Martyn Smith, 54, was jailed for nine years in April 2021 for wounding with intent after both Deena and Michael were brutally stabbed.
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NewsTranscript
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.