New York City woman survives despite being stabbed 40 times, report says

(CBS) - A New York woman who was stabbed 40 times, including through the heart, by a stranger in her Bronx apartment building survived the attack to tell the tale, the New York Post reports.

Alyssa Wilcynski, 35, told the Post on Tuesday that she was heading to her apartment when a stranger followed her into the building around 10:40 p.m. on March 15.

She fought back as he attacked her with a rusty steak knife near the sixth floor of the apartment building, the Post reports. Wilcynski said he then pummeled her in the head.

"It knocked me out for a split second," she told the Post. "He must have thought I was dead ... I knew I was going to die."

Wilcynski was rushed to Lincoln Hospital where she underwent open-heart surgery and stomach and kidney operations, according to the newspaper.

Wilcynski's husband, 38-year-old Patrick Sotomayor, said a neighbor told him that his wife had been stabbed.

"He pierced her heart," Sotomayor told the Post. "He's still out there. I want him off the street - he's an animal."