Arabic version: تكريم طبيب عام في بيرث لنزعه سلاح مهاجم بفأس

According to ABC News, Perth GP Fergus McCabe has received a commendation for brave conduct after disarming an axe-wielding attacker who attempted to kill his colleague Anna Chaney at their North Perth clinic in 2023.

Dr McCabe was seeing a patient when he heard screaming from another consulting room. Christopher Bernard Healey, a former patient of Dr Chaney, had entered the clinic on September 28 with an axe and other weapons concealed in a cardboard box. Dr Chaney had excluded Healey from the practice and obtained a restraining order after he sent inappropriate messages.

Healey entered Dr Chaney’s consulting room while she was with a pregnant patient. Dr McCabe said staff and patients acted quickly: a receptionist called Triple Zero and cleared patients from the waiting room, while another doctor, Ashleigh, opened the consulting-room door after Healey had shut it.

Dr Chaney and her patient had grappled with Healey before Dr McCabe entered. He pulled the patient out, threw the attacker across the room and stayed with him until police arrived. Dr Chaney, who was wounded in the abdomen, was taken to hospital and recovered.

Healey pleaded guilty to six charges, including the attempted murder of Dr Chaney, and was sentenced to 23 years in imprisonment. Dr McCabe was among 22 people awarded individual commendations for brave conduct by the Governor-General. He said Dr Chaney, the patient and others at the clinic had also acted bravely.