Police: Cancer patient attacked at work by man with a hammer

KANSAS CITY, MO - Police say a 62-year-old woman battling breast cancer was beaten at work by a hammer-wielding attacker who broke into her office.

Joyce, who wants her last name withheld, withstood a hammer attack at the Crittenton Children's Center, which handles psychiatric outpatients, in Kansas City, Missouri, Tuesday.

Joyce came to the defense of another co-worker being attacked and then found herself becoming an attack victim herself, according to police. She considered playing dead, but fortunately, another co-worker came by, and the attacker fled in the first victim's car. The attacker is still on the loose, and that's why Joyce doesn't want her last name used.

"My first instinct was to lay there just play dead," she explained. "But I thought any minute, another blow is going to come to the back of my head and that would be it."

Joyce says that St. Luke's Hospital, part of the care system with the Crittenton Children's Center,, has offered to relocate the coding staff to corporate headquarters. She was glad to hear that. But although work is important to her, until the attacker is caught, she won't return to work.

A GoFundMe page has been established by Joyce's sibling.