Woman stabbed 32 times by abusive partner marries paramedic who saved her life
'It was a full circle moment' says Melissa Dohme five years after she was left for dead
A woman who was beaten and stabbed 32 times by an ex-boyfriend has married the medic who helped save her life.
Melissa Dohme and Cameron Hill married in front of around 200 friends, family, firefighters, emergency medics and doctors at a small ceremony.
“It was a full circle moment,” says Ms Dohme. “I spent the worst and the best day of my life with Cameron.”
Ms Dohme was 20-years-old when she was left for dead outside her home in Clearwater, Florida.
Stabbed by her ex-boyfriend Robert Lee Burton Jr, in August 2012, first responder Mr Hill helped carry from an ambulance and into a helicopter.
He said he felt like he would see her again.
But Ms Dohme, pulled through and the pair were reunited at a luncheon in her honour 10 months later.
Shortly afterwards, Mr Hill asked her out and after about two years’ of dating, the 42-year-old proposed at a baseball game.
Ms Dohme was seconds away from throwing the first pitch at a Tampa Bay Devil Rays game when her fiancé to-be handed her a ball with “will you marry me?” scrawled on it.
The duo tied the knot earlier this month in Dade City, Florida.
“Her strength was unbelievable,” Mr Hill told People magazine. “That was the first thing I fell in love with.”
Burton Jr was given a life sentence without parole in August 2013 after pleading guilty to attempted first degree murder.
Nearly 20 people per minute, equating to 10 million men and women each year are physically abused by an intimate partner in the US - according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
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