A Florida woman who was nearly stabbed to death by her ex-boyfriend married the paramedic who saved her life.
The Washington Post reports that Melissa Dohme’s then-boyfriend Robert Lee Burton Jr. stabbed her 32 times on January 24, 2012. Firefighter-paramedic Cameron Hill found the bloodied woman lying outside her Clearwater, Florida, home and loaded her onto the helicopter to be airlifted to a nearby hospital.
“It was so bad. You couldn’t tell she was blond,” Hill told the Tampa Bay Times in 2013.
Sustaining stab wounds to her face, shoulders, neck, and arms, Hill resuscitated Dohme several times after she flatlined, according to Good Housekeeping. A surgeon who testified at her ex’s sentencing hearing said it’s a miracle Dohme survived as she suffered a stoke, extreme blood loss, and a cracked skull.
A judge ultimately sentenced Burton Jr. to life without parole in October 2013, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Dohme and Hill reportedly reconnected at a luncheon two months after the barbaric attack. By December of that year, the pair were dating.
In May 2015, the Tampa Bay Rays invited Dohme to throw the first pitch at a game. It was then that Hill ran onto the field and handed her a ball with “Will you marry me?” scribbled on it.
Posted by Tampa Bay Rays on Monday, May 11, 2015
Dohme endured months of surgery and therapy following the near-fatal stabbing. Miraculously, the Florida woman finished her final bout of reconstructive surgery right before her March wedding.
“I would never want to go through the horrific attack again, but with where I am today, I wouldn’t change it,” Dohme told the magazine. “It has made me into the strong woman I am today and also led me to find my purpose as a Domestic Violence Prevention Advocate.”
“I know God saved me that night to be able to speak out for women who are suffering in silence, and for those who have been forever silenced because their abuser succeeded in taking their life.”
Dohme said that she doesn’t want to be angry with her attacker because it led her to her husband. She also had a message to women recovering from domestic abuse:
“Life and love after abuse is possible.”
Posted by Melissa D. Hill on Friday, September 1, 2017
[Featured Image: Facebook/Melissa Dohme Hill]
