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A visitor to Caye Caulker nearly lost her life when her throat was cut by an armed robber. Fortunately she lived and will recover but with such a bold attack, the question is can Belize’s tourism product take the injury in such a tenuous time? She told me her story today.

Sofia Stefaniw, Victim of Brutal Assault/Robbery
“I am just in shock. I guess, I would have preferred for this not to have happened. God willing I will recover. It will take a while for the swelling to go down and…but as far as the doctors are saying it is just a matter of time.”

Twenty four hours after only just arriving in Belize on Monday night sixty six year old Canadian nurse and tourist Sofia Stefaniw was helicopter to Belize Health Care Partners Limited where she is recovering from a deep chop wound to the left side of her neck. Earlier that night Sofia and her Canadian friend fifty five year old Valerie Walker a resident of Caye Caulker were held up and attacked by a man holding a machete and knives.

Sofia Stefaniw,
“We had come back from a place called the Sandbox, we biked back and then we arrived into her yard and it was quite dark. There are a few lights but it is quite dark and out of the bushes this guy just came out with a machete and a knife, one in each hand. He said I want your money. I remember that, ‘I want your money,’ and I said I will give you my money and I believed that is when he whacked me and then Valerie was trying to get the money out of her pocket and he stabbed her with the knife. I think he used the knife on her, hers was just on the side but mine was a laceration and it nipped an artery.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
Because you are a nurse by profession, you knew it was a serious injury?

Sofia Stefaniw,
“I wasn’t really sure at first until I could taste swallowing blood and then I stopped thinking because there was no point; it was going to go whichever point it was going to go and it went this way and I guess I am still in shock. I have had some medication but I am just in shock.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
Because of your training you immediately applied pressure to the area?

Sofia Stefaniw,
“I did.”

Sofia’s wound was deep and she was losing a lot of blood.

Sofia Stefaniw,
“Valerie starting yelling for help and within minutes there were many many people there and someone stopped this golf cart and they took us to the doctor’s clinic and a man by the name of Eugene, he arranged for a chopper to come out and his perseverance to get the chopper in is remarkable because they called the water taxi and it was pouring rain, pouring rain but the helicopter came in.”

Sofia says her friend Valerie received only a minor cut that required a couple of stitches and has been released.

Jacqueline Godwin,
Do you believe that if you were not a nurse by profession, the outcome would have been very different?

Sofia Stefaniw,
“It may have been. If this injury was more serious, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything myself. But I knew I had to keep pressure on and that is what I did all the while. So yes that is from my background.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
Can you eat, can you swallow?

Sofia Stefaniw,
“I can swallow, I am taking fluids and I just had some x-rays this morning and the doctor said everything is in shape so it is good. So he told me I could eat. Swallowing hurts very much.”

Sofia who received several stitches is on now intravenous drugs and is thankful to the doctors and staff who she says is taking very good care of her health.

Sofia Stefaniw,
“It was an inside laceration he did and so I just have like all this swelling here and here, it goes back in here and in here.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
You think it is going to leave a scar?

Sofia Stefaniw,
“Oh no I am not concerned about the scar. That’s, you’re right, I am here, I believe there is a reason why I was spared and now it is up to me to find the reason.”

Caye Caulker Police have in custody the man who fits the description of the robber. Sources tell us he has been identified as Claudio Gongora, a resident from the island who is no stranger to authorities.

Jacqueline Godwin,
How do you feel knowing that the man who did is in police custody?

Sofia Stefaniw,
“Well it is immaterial to me because I won’t go back there; it is irrelevant. What’s the punishment going to be? Like I said cut his hands off, cut his whatever off. I don’t feel anything about that.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
Do you plan to come back to testify?

Sofia Stefaniw,
“No, he is not worth it. He is not worth my seeing him again. I just hope he rots in hell and has a slow rot. He is not worth the air he breathes.”

As Sofia Stefaniw continues to recover from her neck injury inside the Belize Healthcare Partners Limited, she told us it was her first trip to Belize and she has no intention to return. But before she leaves she has this advice to those who serve to protect law and order.

Sofia Stefaniw,
“They need to be very very strong in their jobs. They need to do their job with a lot of attention because like I said earlier, they are apparently well aware of who the culprits are all the time. The government has to step in and put pressure on the police force.”

Sofia Stefaniw was scheduled to leave the country on Sunday but all that now depends on just how well she will be to travel back home.

Caye Caulker Police say that for all that damage, the only thing robber managed to steal from the women was fifty U.S. dollars. Sofia Stefaniw worked with the Canadian Federal Government for twenty five years. Presently she is the Regional Nurse Manager for two hospitals in Canada and also conducts several clinics in the northern part of her country.

As for her alleged attacker twenty seven year old Claudio Gongora, Caye Caulker Police told 7News that they cannot bring charges against him until they record a statement from Stefaniw – and they can’t do that until she recovers.