When a 21-year-old woman was brutally stabbed by a man in Mangaluru, screams rent the air. Those watching could not take their eyes away from the horror unfolding before them, but the knife in the man's hand stopped them from doing anything.
But, one young woman, a nurse by profession, dared to approach the man and bring the situation under control.
The 24-year-old nurse from Kerala does not want to be named. "Random people are calling and some say they are from the media. I can’t respond to everyone and I've a job to do,” she says.
While the gruesome stabbing, caught on video, has shocked the nation, the nurse's efforts to rescue the woman from the brutal attack have won her praise.
Speaking of the incident, the nurse said that on Friday, she was on her routine duty at the casualty ward when she first heard of what was happening from a few passersby.
"At first we thought it was an accident, but later we came to know that a young woman was being stabbed," she recalls.
Even before she could digest what she had heard, the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) told her to get an ambulance ready. Barely 10 months into her job, the nurse did as she was told.
On reaching the crime scene, which is the road behind the compound of KS Hegde Medical Academy (KSHEMA), the nurse saw 27-year-old Sushanth, whose yellow T-shirt was drenched in blood. His neck was bruised.
“Nothing came to my mind when I saw the guy with the knife," she says. "I just stretched out my hand and asked him what his name was and he kept repeating, 'It was a five-year-old relationship. It was a five-year-old relationship', while constantly gazing at the victim."
The nurse said that it was at this crucial moment that she was able to convince Sushanth to pull away and stop stabbing the victim. By then, she had already been stabbed at least a dozen times. "And then, the ambulance driver and other hospital staff overpowered him,” she says.
The nurse then quickly attended to the young woman and she was rushed to the ambulance on a stretcher, and later to the KS Hegde hospital.
"A little while later, Sushanth was ferried into the hospital in another ambulance and I had to attend to him as well, along with my colleagues, " she adds.
While the young woman is being treated for grievous injuries due to the repeated stabbing, Sushanth’s cut on the throat and self-inflicted injuries are not so deep, a hospital staff noted. Sushanth has been admitted to the psychiatry ward. The condition of the young woman is critical but she is responding to the treatment.
Meanwhile, the nurse says that she realised the gravity of the incident only after it was over.
“A lot of people from the hospital balcony were screaming my name, asking me to be careful and stop. However, at that point, I was not thinking about anything. The mind does not work during such situations. I saw that the young woman had fallen down and my focus was on how I can rescue her. I didn't even realise that I was the one to rush in first,” she says.
The nurse, who completed her nursing education at KSHEMA, has been employed at a local hospital for the last 10 months. “I have come across many cases, but attending a crime incident that happened in front of my eyes is for the first time,” she says.
On a parting note, she adds, "Don’t feature my name. I was just doing my duty.”
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