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Caroline Knutsson twists her hand and shows where one of the stabs struck, in the left elbow.
– I have no direct force in the left hand and wrist, he says.
– Cooking is good for fine motor skills. But at first it was very hard, I don’t know how much I have sworn. When you can’t even cook macaroni … But it just keeps getting better.
Next to her on the couch, the eleven-year-old Chihuahua and the mixed breed Jack Russell Mixie have snuggled up. The dog enjoys the free time she has at home with Caroline. Under the dressed Christmas tree lie the Christmas presents, on the floor next to the sofa there is a toy robot.
– After four we are like any family with children. Jaws, arguing about showering and brushing teeth, watching TV a bit, relaxing and going to bed, says Caroline.
It has been a year since she was attacked by an unknown knife while celebrating her birthday.
I thought it was a stun gun
It was December and Caroline turned 32. She herself thought she would spend Saturday helping her sister in the stable, but in fact her wife and sister had conspired and surprised with brunch, hotel rooms, and a nice dinner with friends.
“We had worked so hard that it was absolutely perfect to achieve this,” he says.
Around midnight, they head to the hotel in Lindholmen and intend to have a drink at the hotel bar. When someone behind Caroline puts an arm around her, she first thinks he’s a friend, another surprise as part of the celebration. Or is it zero, Chalmers has a campus in Lindholmen. But suddenly it feels like someone is using a stun gun on Caroline’s back.
Very soon he realizes that someone wants to hurt him.
I’ve never seen so much blood in my entire life.
She thinks she’s being robbed and screams that he can take whatever he wants. He meets his wife’s gaze. Caroline tries to break free, but soon loses the power of her body and signs on the ground. The man continues to stab her in the body until someone screams and he runs away.
– I see all the blood, I have never seen so much blood in all my life. It is growing in a puddle around me. I just think about staying calm so I don’t increase my heart rate and pump more blood, says Caroline.
At the same time, you are panicking. She repeats over and over to the people around her that she has a child, she has a child.
– That’s why I’m fighting.
READ MORE: Woman exposed to assassination attempt in Lindholmen
Caroline Knutsson and the Mixie dog. Photo: Anders Ylander
Every bump in the road hurts
Caroline is firm in her voice when it counts. Sometimes he takes a sip of coffee or slaps Mixie between the ears – when a car passes, the dog barks, jumps off the couch, and checks the front door. Then he runs back and huddles in math again.
Caroline was hospitalized for two weeks. He received about 16 different injuries and needed surgery, in part because one of his kidneys was badly damaged. He remembers that every bump on the way home hurt, but he praises his family and how well they have taken care of it.
One of the first things he asked the police was the phone number of the couple who helped at the scene, who probably scared the perpetrator with their screams.
– He would have died if they hadn’t stopped him, says Caroline.
How to thank
For many nights she stays up thinking about how to thank someone who has saved your life. In early February, he holds the phone in his hand and dials the phone number of strangers. God, how is he going to present himself? So she just calls. It turns into an emotional conversation and you find that you don’t know what to say except thank you.
He nominated them on the initiative of Aftonbladet Swedish Heroes and in December Rosanna Olsson and Zebastian Nyström Christén were awarded Citizens of the Year 2020.
“Rosanna and Zebastian are heroes because they stopped the brutal knife attack and saved Caroline’s life,” was the jury’s motivation.
– It is very important to raise good people. We live in a society where people could have picked up the phone and filmed instead. But they did not. The least I can do is encourage them and maybe inspire others, says Caroline.
Sentenced to prison
The perpetrator remained at large. In late January, the police released a photo of him, but it was DNA traces from the scene that led the police to the culprit, a 19-year-old man. In July, he was sentenced to eight years in prison for attempted murder. In September, the Court of Appeal confirmed the verdict.
READ MORE: Woman was stabbed 13 times: police search for a mysterious man at the scene
READ MORE: Woman stabbed in Lindholmen, now 19-year-old gang member convicted of attempted murder
– He travels all the time. You are so angry, you are so sad, but then you feel a little sorry for him. Many say that I don’t think so. But she has her whole life ahead of her and she’s ruined. So it’s clear there’s a lot of excitement there, says Caroline.
He limps as he walks to the patio door. Train four times a week; He can’t run yet, but he dreams of trying a paddle, running after his son, running to the bus.
– I won’t be fully restored. But I am so sick, grateful and happy to have come so far, the doctors didn’t think it would go so fast. I’ve accepted that I won’t be a hundred, so I put on meat and we’ll see how close to a hundred I get.
“I’ve become more appreciative and humbled and understand that loved ones are the most important thing in life,” says Caroline Knutsson. Photo: Anders Ylander
Every week he also talks to a psychologist. For the first six months after the attack, she felt mentally fine, but then she began to react to sounds coming from different directions and was satisfied.
One day, she was standing next to vegetables at the grocery store when a guy got too close.
– I screamed directly. Then I was ashamed, poor thing, he did nothing wrong. But those were the things that started and I was, I’m still three hundred percent awake all the time.
“You should be nice”
Caroline now works two hours a day, but the goal is to return full time next year. She has decided: this is going to end and it’s okay that it will take time.
– I have always been a positive and logical person. The purpose of life is to learn new things, that’s my basic attitude. I have become more grateful and humble and I understand that loved ones are the most important thing in life. That, and that you should be nice. Then you go further.
Against everyone?
– For everyone, yes. If you know someone who is angry or unpleasant, I feel quite comfortable with the idea that it is something that is not good, that there is something behind it instead of blaming the person. This is something that has only become clearer after this incident.
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