ABERDEEN NEWS — An Aberdeen paramedic was attacked in the early hours of Sunday morning while attending to a stabbing victim on the farm Vaalvlei in the Aberdeen district.
The ambulance was called to the farm just after midnight by farm workers after a woman was allegedly stabbed in the head by her boyfriend as she was trying to run away from him.
The paramedics, with the injured woman, set off back along the farm road towards town but found one of the farm gates had been closed and locked. They turned around and went back to the house, and phoned the police.
Two other farmworkers went back to the gate and found that it had been unlocked, so the paramedics set off once again. Upon reaching the gate again, the man who had stabbed his girlfriend was there, holding a rock which he was threatening to throw at the ambulance. The vehicle had to stop, and the man, who appeared to have calmed down, apologised to the paramedics and his girlfriend. The farm owner also then came but made it clear that he was not going to become involved. The man then begged to be allowed to accompany his girlfriend to the hospital, and after checking his pockets for possible weapons, the paramedics let him into the back of the ambulance.
Before they had gone very far, he produced a knife which he had hidden down the back of his trousers and demanded that the ambulance stop. He then attacked the driver, stabbing him twice on the side of his face, threw a rock at the ambulance, shattering the windscreen, and ran off. Fortunately, the injured paramedic was still able to drive and was able to reach the hospital, where both he and the original victim received stitches. The police vehicle responding to their call from the farm met the ambulance as it neared the main road, and followed the ambulance back to town.
Later on, Sunday morning police returned to the farm and arrested Julio Saaiman for two cases of assault and one of malicious damage to property. He appeared in the Aberdeen Magistrates’ Court on Monday, but the case was postponed until Thursday.
As far as is known, this is the first attack on any emergency services personnel in the Aberdeen area. It was a frightening experience for the paramedics involved, but fortunately, through their training for varied emergency situations they were able to respond calmly and were not more seriously injured. The ambulance is currently out of use after being taken to Graaff-Reinet for examination and repair.
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