Nurse stabbed at Sylmar hospital listed as critical but a ‘fighter’

A nurse remained in critical condition Monday after being stabbed multiple times in a Sylmar hospital, officials said.

“She’s said to be a fighter, and she’s hanging in there,” said Lt. Denise Stephenson of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s County Services Bureau.

A man entered the Olive View-UCLA Medical Center around 2 a.m. Sunday and bypassed a weapons screening checkpoint, authorities said.

Sheriff’s deputies ran after him and were searching the hospital when they heard a woman scream. They found the nurse, who had been stabbed several times in her upper and lower body.

Ramiro Carnalla, 26, was arrested immediately, Stephenson said, and deputies recovered a knife at the scene.

The woman was in critical but stable condition and appeared to be improving, said Azar Kattan, a spokeswoman for the hospital.

Carnalla, a Los Angeles resident, was booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and was being held on $30,000 bail.

“The entire Olive View community is shocked about the whole thing,” Kattan said. “Our thoughts are with her family members.”

The incident was one of two separate stabbings Sunday at county hospitals.

Hours later, around 9 a.m., a man had just passed through a weapons screening at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance when he saw a group of nurses, sheriff’s officials said.

He allegedly grabbed one of them from behind and stabbed her in the ear with a pencil.

The victim was able to escape and ran away. Sheriff’s deputies arrested Thomas Robert Fredette, 38, and booked him on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.

The nurse in that attack was treated and released, Stephenson said.

Fredette, who lives in Santee, was being held on $130,000 bail.

christine.maiduc@latimes.com

Twitter: @cmaiduc