A man remains at large, and a nurse is being treated for a stab wound to the neck, after she was attacked outside a busy Adelaide hospital while on a break.
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The incident, at the Lyell McEwin Hospital in the northern suburbs of Elizabeth Vale, happened when the nurse was outside the building taking a break from her shift at 6:30 last night when she was approached by a man asking her for a cigarette.
‘I saw someone follow me from the inside of the building out … approaching a lady, and then I heard him yelling obscenities,’ a witness told ABC radio.
The man then stabbed the victim in the neck with an unknown object, before fleeing the scene. The woman was then rushed inside the hospital, where we underwent treatment for her injuries, which are described as serious but not life-threatening.
She is now in a stable condition, with the hospital believed to be reviewing security precautions for staff.
The incident follows concerns of escalating violence at hospitals, and similar complaints from emergency services workers.
‘We have held long concerns and have been advocating for action on violence and aggression for a long time now, both within the hospital system and for those getting to and from the hospitals,’ Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation state secretary Elizabeth Dabars told the ABC.
