Winnipeg doctor acted on 'pure instinct' when he saved woman from knife-wielding attacker

A Winnipeg doctor says he didn't have time to think when he ran at and tackled a man who had just stabbed a woman inside Seven Oaks General Hospital on Wednesday.

Both the attacker and the victim have been identified as employees at the northwest Winnipeg hospital.

Dr. Ken Hahlweg says he was walking toward the waiting room at Seven Oaks when he heard what he described as an "unworldy" scream.

"It didn't even sound human at the time," said Hahlweg, the site's medical lead at Northern Connection Medical Centre, a clinic with a location at Seven Oaks.

Hahlweg could see a cluster of people struggling near the information desk inside the hospital's atrium. Two people fled and Hahlweg saw a man holding what looked like a kitchen knife, roughly 20 centimetres long.

A woman who had been part of the cluster fell to the ground. The man approached her and placed the knife across her neck, Hahlweg said.

"It was clear that he was intending on killing her," he said.

Hahlweg put his head down, ran straight at the man and knocked him off the woman.

"It was just nothing to really think about," he said. "It was total, pure instinct, seeing a situation where there was imminent danger and harm that was going to be inflicted on this woman."

As the attack unfolded, a staff member called for help over the intercom. The intercom was accidentally left open, broadcasting the sounds of the assault throughout the hospital.

Expecting to feel a knife in his back, Hahlweg fell to the floor and the man stumbled against the desk, still holding the knife. When the man turned and started running, Hahlweg chased after, following the man outside. Police arrived on the scene and arrested him.

Back inside the hospital, the woman who had been attacked was bleeding from wounds to her neck and abdomen, Hahlweg said.

She underwent surgery and was in critical but stable condition as of Thursday, Winnipeg Regional Health Authority president and CEO Mike Nader said. She was working at the hospital when the attack occurred, he said.

Nader confirmed the man arrested in connection with the attack was also a hospital employee, but was not on shift at the time.