Just across the border in Thunder Bay, Ontario, a 30-year-old man is in the hospital undergoing reconstructive surgery after he was brutally attacked by six or eight men following bar close early on Saturday morning, after rescuing his two friends from a similar fate.

John Raynard and two friends were smoking outside a bar when they were approached by an aggressive man. The man, along with several companions shouting anti-gay slurs, then followed Raynard and his friends as they walked towards a bus terminal to escape. Raynard shepherded his two friends into a taxicab before having to flee on foot towards a fast-food restaurant. Thunder Bay Newswatch reports:

“I was screaming loud enough to wake up six blocks,” said Raynard. “How did nobody hear me?”

He said the last thing he remembers is banging on the window of a nearby fast-food restaurant for help before waking up in the emergency room of Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre on Saturday afternoon.

“I could have bled to death, ” said Raynard. “I’m lucky to be alive.”

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(h/t Towleroad)