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'I saw the fist': Woman punched in eye by stranger on Winnipeg street

'I saw the fist': Woman punched in eye by stranger on Winnipeg street

A Winnipeg woman doesn't know if she'll regain vision in her right eye after being punched by a stranger Sunday afternoon.

Brittney Thomas-Ljungberg, 28, had just got out of a car near Rupert Avenue and Princess Street in the Exchange District, on the way to meet friends for dim sum, when she was punched directly in the eye while wearing sunglasses.

"I'd gotten onto the sidewalk, and I was facing my partner and then I turned back the other way and there was a fist waiting for me," she said. "Got hit and went down and [there was] a bunch of blood and that was that."

"I saw the fist, and, like, I knew I got hit. It didn't hurt at first, though … it was just a lot of blood and pretty shocking."

Her partner briefly chased after the attacker before turning back to bring her to the hospital.

She later found out she had a punctured sclera, detached cornea and cuts in her eyelid. Two doctors have told her they think she has a partially detached retina, too, meaning she may never recover all her vision.

She'll see a specialist on Friday to find out for sure.

"It's not something I'm looking forward to," Thomas-Ljungberg said of the prospect of vision loss. "But I guess it's something I'm going to have to at least consider that I might have to be prepared for."

Attacker 'needs help'

Thomas-Ljungberg said when her partner caught up with her attacker, he seemed bewildered. She thinks he needs help that he's not getting.

"I don't know if that's something he is just avoiding or just not seeking out, or maybe the resources just aren't something he sees or knows [are] available," she said.

She has worked in the Exchange District for roughly a decade, and she said she's never had a serious problem before.

"There is an amount of people in the area that are dealing with various things that, you know, become regulars. But I never had a bad experience with anyone, or nothing too heavy, before," she said.

"I feel quite privileged to be in the situation I'm in. I mean, I have a home, I have everything kind of taken care of, and I think that my incident is very much a small part of a much bigger problem."

She hopes police locate the man so nobody else gets hurt.

For now, Thomas-Ljungberg is recovering at home after being discharged Monday evening.

A server at Sous Sol, she'll be off work for a while because she can't do heavy lifting, and she's unsure how the injury will impact the chemistry course she's taking this summer.

Sleep is also tough, she said, and she has to use eye drops to help keep her injured eye still, so it doesn't move when her left eye does.

Despite it all, Thomas-Ljungberg is staying positive.

"Now I get this great shield," she said, referring to the heavy bandaging over her eye. "I intend to attach a googly eye. It's great, right?"