Shocking footage shows the moment a pair of paramedics were stabbed in the chest and in the back by a man they had sought to help.
The terrifying video shows Martyn Smith, 53, lunging at the paramedics with an 18-inch knife when they had called to a property in Wolverhampton to respond to concerns over his welfare.
Mum-of-three Deena Evans recollected the attack on July 6 last year saying she had pleaded with a police officer at the scene to "please don't let me die" as she realised she had been stabbed in the chest.
Ms Evans, 40 and who is a single parent, said she doesn't know if she would've made it had it not been for her colleague Michael Hipgrave, 52, who was knifed in the back as he sought to protect her, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.
Smith was sent to prison for nine years on Friday, after admitting two charges of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) said.
In extracts from the victim impact statement, Ms Evans told Smith "you have taken away all that I am from me" while she attended the concern-for-welfare check after his mother raised the alarm.
She said: "I came to help you. I said your name, asked if you were OK, and then you jumped out and stabbed me. "
Ms Evans described how, as they went in the house, Smith "ran out from around the kitchen door with an 18-inch knife in each hand and just ran at me, and I went backwards".
Speaking in a video released by WMAS after sentencing, she added: "Mick pushed me out the way, stood in front of me and I felt him lunge forward - obviously where he had been stabbed in the back."
She described feeling blood pouring from the stab wound in her chest, and collapsing in Smith's garden, holding on to a female police officer and pleading with her "please don't let me die".
Graphic images of the wounds were released, along with stills from police body-worn video footage, showing Ms Evans lying on the grass, with an injured Mr Hipgrave.
Mr Hipgrave described how he and Deena had gained entry to the property with the police when Smith suddenly emerged from behind the door.
"We’d only got in about two yards, couldn’t hear anything and then all of a sudden he appeared from behind the door on the right holding two very large kitchen knives.
"Before I had time to react he actually lunged forward and stabbed Deena in the chest and as my back was facing him he then stabbed me in the back.
"If the police hadn’t been with us I don’t think we would've been here to be honest with you."
"Because we were in such a confined space at the time we had nowhere to go and no way of defending ourselves."
Ms Evans, a clinical team mentor from Willenhall, recollected the moment she realised she was wounded saying: "I remember taking a step back and thinking 'my uniform is really wet - really wet and sticky'.
"So I started to check under my shirt and I saw the wound and it was just pouring out, so I put my hand on my chest to try and stem it and I shouted 'I've been stabbed, I've been stabbed'.
She added: "I ran into the garden, that's where I collapsed, and the female officer was with me, and I said to her 'please don't let me die, please don't let me die - I've got three children'.
"I was gripping on to her uniform and she kept saying 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry - you're not going to die, I won't let you die'."
Ms Evans was taken to hospital and spent three days receiving treatment, including emergency surgery following complications with the wound.
Mr Hipgrave, of Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, was discharged from hospital later the same evening, after treatment for a wound to his back.
In her statement read in court Ms Evans said: "I trained for three years and have two degrees, all to do my job, to come and help people like you, like on July 6 where, as I stepped through your door, I came to help you.
"I said your name, asked if you were OK, and then you jumped out and stabbed me.
"Not in the arm, or the leg, you stabbed me in my chest, and then you stabbed my colleague while he was trying to protect me.
She described losing her independence in the weeks after the attack as "soul-destroying".
Ms Evans, who has returned to work, said chest muscle damage had left her in pain "every single day" often leaving her "in tears", while "numbness" in her arm "may be permanent".
She added: "I will forever look down and see my scar across my chest, painful and lumpy, a constant reminder of you and what you did."
Ms Evans described how her elderly parents and sisters had to tell her children, aged six, 11 and 12, what had happened and "how helpless" she felt as a mother.
She added: "That day, you took all that I am away from me - you took my confidence, my humour, my trusting nature and my happiness."
Smith, of Stephens Close, was also given an extended licence period of five years, the crown court confirmed.
Meanwhile, WMAS said money from NHS England had been used to buy 1,288 body-worn cameras to help prosecute those who abuse and assault frontline staff.
Later this year, 22 ambulance crew members will volunteer to trial body armour.
WMAS said that in the past year, there had been 1,162 physical attacks recorded against staff.
Physical assaults on WMAS staff have risen by more than 60% in the past five years, while verbal assaults have more than doubled.
Speaking after the hearing, WMAS chief executive Anthony Marsh said: "For two paramedics to be stabbed so horrifically whilst simply trying to help a patient is sickening.
"I hope today's sentence acts as a deterrent and sends a strong message that attacks on emergency service workers will not be tolerated."
