‘I could feel my lungs filling up with blood': Florida mom survives after being stabbed 13 times by husband

A Florida mother survived a brutal attack last month, and now she is sharing her story after she was allegedly stabbed 13 times by her husband.

“Honestly thought I was going to die there,” Crystal Bresnahan told NBC6 affiliate WFLA. “I couldn’t breathe. I could feel my lungs filling up with blood,” she continued. “It was terrifying.”

According to officials, Bresnahan was allegedly attacked by her husband Michael, a man who was already on their radar after officials said he pulled out an AK-47 and started shooting at police last month in Tampa.

Police told WFLA 18 officers returned fire on Michael in an effort to protect innocent bystanders. He was later found dead inside the car from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Bresnahan shared the details of the incident on July 17 that changed her life forever.

Prior to the attack, Bresnahan had left her husband and said she had an extensive conversation with him about how she was not going back.

According to Bresnahan, Michael asked her to take their kids to a park so he could see them and she agreed.

“He just kind of played it like, ‘I’m really hurt and I would like to see the kids; it’s going to make me feel better,'” she explained.

She could never have imagined what would happen next as she went to kiss her kids goodbye.

As she went in for the kiss, Bresnahan told WFLA she felt the knife in her back and her husband told her to get in the car and not to scream.

“As he was stabbing me in the front seat, my 6-year-old son, said, ‘Dad, stop! You’re killing my mom.'”

She fought back, but she said once her husband realized he could not get the car door closed he proceeded to stab her. Bresnahan remembers walking about 100 yards and feeling the knife go in over and over again.

“He pulled me out of the car, stabbed me some more and threw me on the ground,” Crystal recalled. “[Then, he] drove off.”

She remembers walking 100 yards with 13 stab wounds.

“There wasn’t a piece of my body that wasn’t completely soaked in blood," Bresnahan said.

She then recalled a man saw her and ran toward her as people drove past.

“When I knew someone was coming to help, it’s like my body just shut down and I just fell,” she told WFLA.

Now, she’s out of the hospital recovering.

Bresnahan said she’s had multiple surgeries, received several stitches, and doctors had to put her intestines back into her body. She added she was stabbed in the liver, her colon, her lungs and that her left arm was shredded.

“It was bad. They had to put it back together,” she said.

When asked what she would tell her husband today, she said "you failed, I'm still here."

“I won; I get to live my life in peace,” she added. “I don’t have to look over my shoulder anymore, but I would also say that I’m sorry.”