Love is truly blind! A Big Apple man left blind after being stabbed in the eye by a subway robber has revealed how he found love in the aftermath of the horrific attack.
In January 2020, The blind man, identified simply as “K” for privacy reasons, was reportedly the victim of a random subway robbery, in which the attacker used a screwdriver to gouge out his left eye.
The New York Native, who was 33 at the time of the incident, narrated his ordeal to Humans of New York on Tuesday, and as of Thursday morning, the gut-wrenching account has already been read by over 700,000 people.
“When I woke up I couldn’t see. It’s like: why can’t I see? Eyes open, eyes closed. It’s the same thing. And I can’t move,” K recalled of the moment he regained consciousness after the assault.
K added that a cop handcuffed his legs to his hospital bed when he woke up, despite being the victim of a horrific attack.
“Even today it bothers me. Why did they put me in handcuffs? I’m the one who got robbed. I’m the one who got stabbed in the eye. Why was I shackled up like a prisoner of war? I never got an answer for that. I’ve asked myself a million times, what if hadn’t been in cuffs?”
K was eventually released from the hospital with the hope that he could eventually see again. However, the New York native began feeling depressed when doctors told him that his optic nerve was damaged and that he would likely never regain his sight.
K subsequently began drinking after being forced to move back into his family home.
“I felt dead, worse than dead,” he wrote in a follow-up post. “For awhile I thought: Maybe I’m in hell. Is this how hell is? Cause I’m up. I’m walking around. But it’s pitch black. And there’s fire all around me. It was the pandemic, so it felt like the world was on fire.”
K said it is unclear to him whether his attacker was detained or walked free due to overcrowding in prisons amid the coronavirus outbreak. However, he also admits he hadn’t come back to his senses at the time.
Four months after the attack, K became totally depressed. He was always at home crying and drinking regularly. At that point, K’s sister suggested he call an old friend named Melissa. The suggestion turned K’s life around almost instantly.
Melissa, who had worked together with K at a Brooklyn steakhouse years earlier, began speaking to him daily on the phone, reminding him of the times they spent together. On May 1st, the pair decided it was time to meet up in person. The bond between them was clearly evident during their first meeting, even though K could not see Melissa physically.
“May 1st was like a movie, a comedy about a blind guy,” he recalled in another installment of his survival story. “You know how you imagine things when you’re reading a book? Well I could see her … That was May 1st. It’s the day like love. May 1st is like love.”
The pair swiftly became an official couple, regardless of K’s complex condition. K and Melissa have been together for more than a year now, with K confessing to Humans of New York that he still sometimes fears his God-given soulmate might eventually abandon him.
“There are times when she wants to talk about the future. Credit scores and stuff like that. She’ll say: ‘I’m in school for nursing, what are you going to do?’ And I’ll feel intimidated, real quick. I’ll feel like she’s gonna meet a doctor and leave me,” K stated.
The fear of another attack has kept K always at home. However, with the help of Melissa’s love, he now begins to venture out around his neighborhood again.
“If I’m not moving, that means I died on that day [of the attack]. I died on January 14th. I died at 33. And there has to be more. I want to see more than this. I don’t even know what I want to see, but something more than this. The world, life. I want to see life. Step one is I’m blind… Step two is a whole new life. And it’s time to start walking,” K emotionally wrote.
Meanwhile, a GoFundMe page was created two days ago to help K get back on his feet. As of the time of this report, the page has generated nearly $620,000 in donations.
