Woman Stabbed 32 Times Saved by EMT–Who Ends Up Falling for Her Months Later

Photo courtesy of Tampa Bay Rays

From the archives: This story was last updated in May 2019.

Couples typically meet through mutual friends, at school, or college—normal places. When Cameron Hill and Melissa Dohme first happened upon each other, Cameron wasn’t sure Melissa was even going to live.

Dohme was a college student in Clearwater, Florida, in 2012 when her ex-boyfriend, Robert Burton, arrived at her house and stabbed her 32 times. She lost so much blood that she flatlined four times that night, suffering a stroke and ultimately requiring countless reconstructive surgeries in the following years to regain her appearance and feeling in her face.

When Hill—who is a first responder—arrived at the scene, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. But despite so much blood that he couldn’t even tell that Dohme was blonde, he felt a bizarre connection as she was loaded onto the Life Flight helicopter.

When the two met for a second time at a thank-you luncheon she held for her rescuers a few years later, that bizarre connection turned out to be a spark.

They had met the first time under horrific circumstances, and by the time they met again, Dohme was dedicating her life to educating other women on how to avoid the kinds of atrocities she incurred at the hands of her abusive former partner. But despite the unlikely backdrop for a love story, that’s exactly what the two realized they had. And three years after Dohme’s life was nearly taken, Hill showed her what true love really looks like.

The young woman only knew she was going to a Tampa Bay Rays game to throw out the first pitch, getting honored as a survivor of domestic violence and an inspirational speaker in her community.

Instead, Hill was waiting for her with a very important question.

Dohme couldn’t hide her surprise when her boyfriend walked out to the mound with the baseball she was supposed to toss. But when she looked down on it, she saw that it had the words “Will you marry me?” written in red across the leather surface—and realized that she was finally getting her fairy tale ending.

The couple tied the knot in a beautiful ceremony in Dade City, Florida, in front of family, friends, and six of the other first responders and medical personnel who worked that fateful night in 2012 to save Dohme’s life.

“It’s unbelievable where my life’s come from and where I am now,” said Dohme to PEOPLE Magazine. “For so long, I felt when looking at myself, that I wasn’t myself and I always had something wrong with me. I didn’t want people to always have to give me sympathy or anything like that. Cameron was so great, he would always just be there for me I think in every way.”

Now, Dohme works as an advocate for a non-profit in Florida called Hands Across the Bay, dedicating her time and energy to preventing violence and helping families who need safe places to escape violent situations.

She’s giving hours upon hours to make sure that no one else gets stabbed by someone they love—and when she goes home at night, it’s to someone who reminded her what true, kind love can look like.