D.C. FF: 'They literally beat me for two minutes'

D.C. Firefighter Myisha Richards doesn't approach her dream job like she used to.

Things took a turn on July 31, 2020, when she was attacked by a patient who was unhappy with her service.

She isn't the only one assaulted by the very patient they were trying to help, WRC reported adding that attacks against responders are on the rise. 

While she always considered herself one of the good guys, she admitted: “I feel like a lot of things changed.”

She went to that apartment that day to help a person who was having trouble breathing. But, minutes into the call, she was the one who needed help.

Richards and her partner were responding to a call for someone having trouble breathing. Minutes later, she was the one who needed help, she said adding that before they reached the stairs and call for help, they were attacked.

“The girl jumped over the railing and she came down and just started, like, wailing on me, basically. Then the other girl came down, the (trouble breathing) patient that we were there for. They literally beat me for two minutes.”

The last things she remembers were radioing for help and seeing one of the women’s shoes kicking her face. She needed stiches above her eye, had bruises on her face, a concussion and was missing hair.

Charges were dropped against one and the other was required to do 60 hours of community service.

She told reporters going back to work was difficult. “I just moved differently because I was always on a high alert." 

The PTSD took its toll. She stopped hanging out with friends and drank too much. Things came to a head on a call. 

"I just kind of froze. I could not really function other than the only thing I could worry about was what everybody else was doing and how we can get up out of there."

After that shift, she checked herself into a 45-day inpatient treatment facility for career firefighters.

Back at work now, she is speaking out as she doesn't want what happened to her to happen to anyone else.