A frightening incident in Wollaston Lake left the community without nurses over the weekend.
A man wielding a knife broke into the home of one of those nurses, Toni Diachinsky, early Friday morning.
A man with a hoodie on was just outside their bedroom door, she said.
“And then we saw him pull a knife out so we shut the door and he started to stab the door with the knife several times, and then I was terrified. Lucky I had my cell phone in my bedroom,” Diachinsky said.
The man ran away after she called security at the hospital and then the RCMP.
“If it wasn’t for my boyfriend, I don’t know what could have happened,” she said. “I felt like he was there to harm me, like to harm us, and I was really scared. I was horrified actually.”
She has lived in the community for three years, and felt safe until the incident. However, Diachinsky said her coworkers and community members have been supportive and helping her recover from the fear she’s experienced.
For the present, she’s taken time off from work. Her coworkers have also felt uncomfortable because of what happened, Diachinsky said.
“We just needed time away from there.”
All nurses in the community and their employer mutually decided to take nurses off the schedule at the Wollaston Lake Health Centre over the weekend, according to Prince Albert Grand Council’s health and social development director Al Ducharme.
“We brought them out,” Ducharme said. “They went through a traumatic experience and we didn’t want to have them there without having worked with them and talked with them, and having them feel like they’ve been listened to.”
The nurses were in counselling in Prince Albert on Monday afternoon following a meeting.
Security measures are discussed on a regular basis Ducharme said. In this instance, extra security was hired at Wollaston Lake after the incident.
The RCMP confirmed there was a break-in on Friday.