A Bendigo paramedic who was attacked on the job has spoken out about violence against emergency service workers.
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In court, the local health worker - Dani - told the woman who "coward punched" her in the back of the head in the police station, "I want you to be sorry and not do this again".
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The woman has been remanded to appear in court in October after pleading guilty in the Bendigo Magistrates' Court on September 7 to the violent attack which the court heard she had described as "funny" to police when asked if she felt any remorse.
She was charged with assaulting an emergency worker on duty and being drunk in a public place.
Although she could not recall her violence, the court heard she told police "that sounds like me" before describing how she would become "extremely violent and aggressive".
'In my head they're hurting me'
The court heard the woman described herself as "messed up in my head" and she told police "in my head they're hurting me".
At least a dozen paramedics packed into the court room before Magistrate Megan Aumair as the health worker of three-and-a-half years - who wishes to be known as Dani - described how the incident had made her "second guess my faith in the community I work with".
She described having "no idea what she was capable of" and experiencing nightmares since.
Dani described worrying for the safety of her colleagues and feeling sick at the woman's "determination to attack" even with the deterrents that existed within a police station.
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The court heard "there's nothing to prevent (Dani) from attending a call out to her again".
"It impacts my ability to be as kind and empathetic towards future patients," Dani said.
She said she "exhausted every possibility to comfort the offender" but "safety was never guaranteed".
Paramedic says 'not safe anywhere'
"We're not safe anywhere," she said.
"We cannot save anyone's life if we're fighting for our own."
Dani said she and her colleagues were empathetic people who saw mental health concerns with every single shift.
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"I did not have ill intentions (towards you) and you took advantage of my kindness," Dani said directly to her attacker.
"I want you to be rehabilitated, I want you to thrive in life and I want you to show remorse."
She told the court paramedics worked 14-hour days and had people "assault us, spit on us, treat us like we're nothing".
Support circle of paramedics outside court
Outside court, Dani said her message to the public was that paramedics and other emergency service workers "have a right to go to work and feel safe".
"We're there to support our community and deserve the same respect back from our patients," she said.
"We deserve to go home safely to our families at the end of the day, just like everyone else."
She said she felt incredibly grateful for the support from her colleagues, managers and union.
"When something like this happens, it doesn't just impact the paramedic that it happened to, it affects us all - especially at a local level," she said.
The young paramedic asked the community to "stand united" with health workers and "call out any inappropriate, aggressive or violent behaviour towards us".
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