Survival Stories: Oklahoma Woman Stabbed 7 Times Fought Back

A woman who survived being stabbed seven times explains how she found the mental and physical strength to fight back.

"It was everywhere, it was everywhere," said Delayna Knapp. "There was so much blood. I can't even describe how much. You don't know how much blood you actually have until you see it on the floor."

Knapp survived being stabbed by her boyfriend, Adam Allen, in 2015. Her scars have faded but not her memories. 

She and Adam had dated off and on for eight  years until one night, their fighting went too far.

"He choked me really hard. He put his hands around my through and I was about to pass out."

 She moved out but still needed to get some of her clothes from their apartment. She says he promised her everything would be okay.

 "I was standing there with everything in my hands and he asked me if he could have a hug and I said no at first. I don't want a hug, I don't want  anything to do with you, I just want to leave," Knapp said.

But she relented, hoping he would let her go peacefully. Instead, he pulled out a knife and began stabbing her. She grabbed the blade, but he continued cutting and stabbing her, dragging her through the apartment, trying to suffocate her, even trying to break her neck. She begged for her life, brought up her daughter, but nothing worked, until she put the focus on him.

"I said, 'We can say that somebody broke in here and I won't leave you and I won't tell anybody that you did it and we can just say somebody broke in and you were trying to protect me. We can both go to the hospital and we won't tell anybody. We'll be okay. It'll be fine.' And, he did, he called the police."

A witness outside had seen Adam attacking her and she told the police it was him, just before she lost consciousness. She says the pain was unbelievable and she needed surgery and spent days in ICU, then she went into three months of intensive trauma therapy.

 "You can't just not talk about it. You have to talk about it. That is the only way to get through it."

She says looking back, she wishes she would've seen all the red flags and left sooner.

"I want to know why. I still want to know why. Why? Or another question, if he did kill me, what was he going to do with me?"

She believes she was able to fight to survive because of her sheer desire to live and to see her daughter and parents.
"You don't know what you can do until you're in it. You have no idea how strong you are."

That strength allowed her to face Adam in court. He pleaded guilty and got a 28-year prison sentence.

Delayna says this made her realize she was not living the life she wanted so she made big changes and decided to make her life count.