"It's a miracle I'm alive": Man stabbed 15 times talks attacker out of killing him
A Melbourne man says it is “miraculous” he is still alive after he convinced his attacker not to kill him.
David Fowles told 10daily he was resting in his Bellfield home on January 25 when the accused, his then-housemate, allegedly came into his room and stabbed him more than 15 times.
“From the moment he entered the room it was clear to me that this was the end of my life ... I immediately started talking, even as he was cutting me,” Fowles said.
“I told him ‘you will ruin your life if you murder me, you have to stop for your own sake’, and talked to him about things I knew he had coming up that he had hopes for.
“I had to ask him to put the knife down... it was a bit unnerving.
“I feel that, by showing compassion to the person who was killing me, I broke through whatever was gripping him at the time.”
Fowles then managed to unlock his phone and dial 000 for ambulance and police. “I put it on speakerphone and just shouted ‘Ambulance! Police!’ and the address,” he said. “Without triple zero I’d be dead.”
He suffered from a broken neck and multiple wounds across his body.
“They put five pints of blood in me I’m told, it’s a miracle I’m alive,” he said. “My right arm doesn’t work well right now and the left is in a splint, but I’ve received optimistic advice about my chances for returned function.”
Victoria Police said the attacker, a 37-year-old man, has been charged with intentionally causing serious injury and remains in police custody.
Fowles is currently in recovery at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. According to an online fundraiser page, the actor and comedian aims to carry on with his first Melbourne Fringe show in September.