Unhinged patient stabs EMT trying to help him in ambulance outside Mount Sinai West in Manhattan

An unhinged man stabbed an on-duty emergency medical technician as he was being treated inside an ambulance in Manhattan on Wednesday night, according to police and witnesses.

The 25-year-old first responder was trying to assist Rudy Garcia in the back of the ambulance as it approached Mount Sinai West in Midtown on W. 59th St. near 10th Ave. just before 9 p.m. Wednesday, when the suspect flashed a kitchen knife, police said.

Garcia, 48, became upset as the ambulance approached the loading dock of the emergency room and stabbed the EMT in the chest and leg, a witness said.

“He was a patient-turned-psycho,” said a fellow EMT, who declined to be identified. “He stabbed her in the leg, chest and arm. He skewered her.”

The wounded EMT works for an ambulance company linked to Mount Sinai and is not a member of FDNY EMS, city officials said.

Her ambulance does respond to calls put out to the 911 system.

Jehovany Diaz, 60, observed the response from the upper floors of an adjacent building.

“The ambulance stopped right there,” he said, pointing to the emergency room loading dock. “The driver ran out for help.”

He said that police and other hospital workers rushed to the EMT’s aid.

“They cut the clothing off her uniform,” Diaz said. “She was bleeding from her leg ... I couldn’t believe that someone who helps people could be stabbed by a patient.”

The wounded EMT was alert and smiling as she was transferred from Mount Sinai West to a level-one trauma center after the attack.

Fellow emergency medical workers erupted in applause as she was wheeled out on a stretcher and loaded into another ambulance.

Garcia was suffering a medical episode when he was picked up and brought to the hospital but he wasn’t suffering from any apparent emotional or mental distress, a police source said.

He allegedly attacked the EMT mid-treatment with a kitchen knife that he had hidden on him. He was taken into custody seconds after the attack and brought to Mount Sinai West for observation.

Cops later charged him with assault, criminal possession of a weapon and obstructing government administration.

His arraignment was pending in Manhattan Criminal Court Thursday.

Assaults against city EMT’s more than doubled between 2018 and 2021, according to Oren Barzilay, the president of Local 2507.