5 Months Later, UC Merced Adviser Mending From Stabbing

MERCED (CBS13) — It's been five months since an academic adviser at UC Merced was stabbed multiple times by 18-year-old freshman Faisal Mohammed.

Danielle Quiroga's road to recovery is still far from over.

"I was stabbed twice. Once in the front and once in the back," she said.

But don't call her a victim. She's a survivor.

"I don't think we realized the extent of the damage until I was actually in the hospital," she said.

The damage was a stab wound to the chest and back at the hands of UC Merced freshman Faisal Mohammad last November. She spent five days in the hospital after discovering the knife pierced her chest cavity.

"They had to do four layers of stitches on the front," she said.

She says she was walking with a friend, running about 10 minutes late to work, when she suddenly heard construction workers yelling that someone had a knife.

"I looked around and I didn't see any students with anything. They just looked like normal students and then all of a sudden, a student had a knife in his hand and was charged toward us," she said. "I said please don't, dear God, please don't."

Five months and five surgeries later, she's still working to regain her strength through physical therapy.

"She's been through a lot," her physical therapist Julie DeYoung said. "She's just been through a lot. But she's continuously works hard and doesn't give up and it is an inspiration to all of us, truly."

An inspiration with a foundation in faith guiding her to a healthy new chapter.

"God's not going to give you something you can't handle," Quiroga said.

She's had a number of setbacks since the incident. Over Christmas, doctors had to remove her gall bladder and a large portion of her intestine.

She hopes to be back to work sometime soon.