Student attacked but is safe

One of our students was attacked last night. He sustained some injuries to his face, but thank god is safe. I spoke to him about it this morning and it sounded like a hell of a fight. I will post some details of his experience when I know more. He did, however, tell me that he instictively used alot of what we've taught him and credited our 'dont quit' attitude to saving him.

On the subway in Philly, a man was attacked brutally with a hammer. It was in a confined space, and looked eerily like the security camera footage from our winter camp training on the buses.
The victim tries to defend himself by covering and going fetal, both sitting and on the ground, but continues to get pummeled. I'm surprised he survived.
Once the attack leaves the subway car and continues on the platform, you can clearly see the attack proceed to a bear hug from behind, arms caught.
Lets learn: Even if the initial attack was complete surprise and you didn't even see the first stroke, which appears to be the case, by the second stroke you need to re-direct the attack a little and hit the attacker if your not unconscious. It appears that the victim was in a position several times to get some solid defensive kicks in to the mid section and even the face of the attacker. While sitting, you can make an amazingly strong kick since your back is up against something solid and you can push off. The goal here would have been to make enough space to stand while doing damage to your attacker.
The next position the victim was in was on his back with the attacker standing over him swinging. Same thing applies here; make strong attacks with your legs. The attacker appeared to be trying to strike at more vital targets than the legs of his victim (makes sense given the mindlessness of the attack) so I don't think that in that position you have to be as defensive and you should pour alot of energy into your offense.
The last position we have is the bear hug from behind, arms caught. It's hard to tell if he still held the hammer, but I think it was still in his hand, which would have made the hold weak at best. The problem here is this, if you defend against the bear hug and he still has a weapon, you have a continuing and evolving problem still. In your bear hug defense, you should look to turn TOWARDS the weapon arm when rotating in order to try to achieve or maintain some kind of control over that limb while you continue to throw counters. Be sure you don't step away during your turn and create too much space, giving the attacker room to build another attack.