A husband and wife who were both stabbed at a Dunedin Countdown supermarket last year say the trauma they have suffered because of the attack has left them afraid of leaving their house.
Jorge Fuenzalida and Vanessa Miller-Andrews were among four people who were seriously injured in the attack, which was carried out by Luke Lambert in May 2021.
Lambert was sentenced to 13 years in prison on Tuesday.
Fuenzalida described to 1News how he and his wife were in the supermarket when he heard screaming and found a man trying to restrain Lambert.
He says he managed to take one knife off Lambert but didn’t realise he had another, with which he began stabbing Fuenzalida multiple times in his neck.
Luke Lambert faced his victims at the High Court in Dunedin. (Source: 1News)
Miller-Andrews intervened but was also attacked with the knife. She would later need to be resuscitated twice in hospital.
Fuenzalida believes his wife’s intervention saved his life.
“He was there on a mission,” he says. “He was there to kill.”
Miller-Andrews says their attacker didn’t say anything and it appeared as if he was on drugs.
When asked what they thought about Lambert, Fuenzalida had this to say.
“I feel angry. I feel that we all need to make better choices about how we deal with stuff and obviously, that’s not the right way to deal with something.”
Jorge Fuenzalida says he and his wife Vanessa have PTSD after being critically injured in 2021. (Source: 1News)
A year on from the attack, the couple say they are both still struggling both physically and mentally.
Miller-Andrews says she finds it hard to get out of bed or bend over and she’s also been unable to return to work.
“I don’t feel like I’d be able to do the job as well, mainly because of the pain level and I suffer from insomnia now, so it has limited me.”
Fuenzalida, meanwhile, says they have both been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and are now unable to enjoy their lives.
He says simple things they do, like going for a drive or into a café, often trigger feelings of discomfort.
“We’re afraid of getting out of the house. For us to go out and do something, it takes a lot.”
Miller-Andrews says they are taking each day as it comes but that she wouldn’t change her actions because she still has her husband by her side.
“Life’s better with him,” she told 1News.
“I think I would do it for anyone who needed help, I would go in and help. it’s better than standing there.”
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