In the chaos of an axe attack inside a Perth medical clinic, Dublin-born GP Dr Fergus McCabe remembers one detail with startling clarity: time seemed to slow to a crawl.
Dr McCabe has received an award for stepping in when a man attacked his colleague with an axe in Perth, Australia, in September 2023.
Australian Governor General Sam Mostyn recognised him for what was described as an act of bravery.
Recounting the moment on RTÉ’s Today with David McCullagh, Dr McCabe said he had been upstairs in his apartment, in a room located in a second building, finishing up with one patient and preparing to see another.
Then, he said, he heard what he described as a “very shrill scream from downstairs”.
“Initially you don’t think that somebody is attacking somebody. My mind went to, first, was that one of my colleagues needed help dealing with a distressed patient,” he said.
But as he left his room to go down, he said he quickly understood “that it was something much worse”.
“I recognised the voice, I recognised the terror in the scream, so I started to run,” he said.
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He stressed that his actions were only part of a broader, immediate response, saying everyone involved reacted “properly”.
As he ran down the stairs, he said, the 18-year-old receptionist was also moving to help.
“I had to tell her to go back,” he said.
By then, he said, the clinic itself had been cleared — the receptionist downstairs had managed to get everyone out.
He said the receptionist also worked part-time taking 999 calls and knew the code to use for an armed attack, meaning “he got a rapid response really quickly”.
Dr McCabe said the attacker had stalked his colleague, a female doctor named Anna, for a number of years.
He said the man entered their main building carrying a metre-long tree-felling axe and went to the reception area, searching doors for Anna’s name.
According to Dr McCabe, the man then walked into Anna’s consulting room and “struck her viciously” with the axe.
When Dr McCabe reached the room, he said the door was open and he could see the attacker holding the axe, his colleague Anna, and a patient inside.
“I came in, charging in, a pregnant woman was grappling with him and bravely fighting with him to protect Anna.
“Anna was lying on the ground, bleeding and in distress but also fiercely fighting with her feet to protect herself from him and he was going at her again with the axe.
“Luckily … it was our smallest room … I was able to grab the axe, pull the patient out and scream ‘go’… and throw him across the room and stand between him and Anna,” he said.
Dr McCabe said traumatic situations can make everything feel as if it is happening “very slow”, and described himself as operating on autopilot.
He said: “I’m covered in blood, I must have been grappling with him, but I don’t remember it …”
His immediate priority, he said, was to get Anna out of the room and ensure she received help.
Police then arrived and, he said, “courageously” restrained the attacker and “took control of the scene”.
He said Anna suffered blunt force trauma and required surgery because of her injuries.
