MASSILLON, Ohio — It's a tough scene for David Upshaw to recall.
"Just by the grace of God, I didn't die or get injured worse," he tells us.
It was a night back in October that started as a normal shift for him, working as a corrections officer at the Indian River Juvenile Correctional Facility in Massillon. A night that changed his life forever.
"All of a sudden, I just felt myself going down to the ground," Upshaw remembers.
He was brutally attacked by one of the youth inmates. The details were still fuzzy for him as he described the chaotic scene to 3News.
"I felt tugging and punching and hitting, but I couldn't see where it was at because he had hit me on this side of my face," Upshaw said, pointing to his left.
That attack landed him in the hospital for nearly three weeks. At first, he was going into kidney and heart failure, as his lungs filled with fluid.
Now, four months later, he's still battling neurological and vision issues, unable to keep his balance while slowly trying to make progress on his long road to recovery.
"That particular night, we were talking about it, and we said, 'Somebody is going to get seriously hurt," David's wife Pat said, "and not a few hours later, I get the call."
Pat believes the whole incident could have been avoided, and is calling for new leadership for the Ohio Department of Youth Services.
Just days after David's attack, a dozen youth inmates got out of their rooms and barricaded themselves in a school building with makeshift weapons. Days later, a similar situation happened at the Circleville Juvenile Correctional Facility just south of Columbus.
"Something has got to give," Pat stated. "I've said it time and time again: Somebody is going to get killed in there."
The state has since announced it will allow the use of pepper spray and body cameras for select staff and has also fired the superintendent and the gang intervention specialist at Indian River. Still, Pat says there needs to be more accountability to protect staff, not the youth inmates.
"You can get rid of all these people, then you tell me how the stuff is continuing to happen," she said with exasperation. "Attacks are continuing to happen."