Andrew Kimball-Mirzaie had been working at Butler Hospital less than two months when he was attacked by a patient.
At 30, Kimball-Mirzaie has the athletic build of someone who looks like he could defend himself if he had to. But he had no reason to think he might be in danger one afternoon in February of last year when was sent in alone to a room with a young male patient who was waiting to be admitted to the psychiatric hospital on Providence’s East Side.
Kimball-Mirzaie had brought the patient a sandwich and a drink, and was seated near him as they were watching a Knicks basketball game on TV. Suddenly, he said, the patient stood up and punched him, repeatedly, in the face.
“I have never experienced anything like that,’’ he said. “It was really traumatic.’’…