A tourist stabbed in broad daylight on Front Street told last night how he and his wife said their last goodbyes in fear that he would not make it through the ordeal.

From his hospital bed in Chicago, Scott Jable re-lived the moment he felt a six-inch knife puncture his back just a fraction from his spine while shopping with his wife Christine on Monday morning.

The father, who was on the Island visiting friends, said he believed he was lucky to be alive, and said both him and his wife thought he was going to die.

"I know I'm very luck to be alive," Mr. Jable said. "I thought the end had come. We have only been married for two years, we have a young son and a great family life. It was very emotional.

"Chris and I said a prayer or two and we both said goodbye to each other. We didn't know what was going to happen. We each wanted to make sure that we were both aware of what we meant to each other. I asked her to take care of our son, and to tell our families that I loved them. There were tears."

Mr. Jable said he and his wife were walking along Front Street at about 9.30 a.m. to do some last minute shopping in preparation for them returning home to Chicago on Monday night.

He said he was pushing their nine-month-old son, Cole, in his stroller just outside the Bees Knees store when he felt a thump in his back.

"I suddenly felt as though someone had punched me in the back," said Mr. Jable. The guy shouted something as he did it, but I couldn't tell you what it was. It may not have even been a word. I reached around and felt a one inch by one inch hole in my back.

"I actually put my finger in it to try to stop the bleeding. I fell to the ground and said I had been stabbed. Chris started screaming for help."

Mr. Jable said the knife had been thrust into his back from behind, and had entered his body dangerously close to many of his major organs.

The blade, believed to belong to a hunting knife, actually hit the bone surrounding his spinal cord, but if it had been just a centimetre further across, it could have punctured a kidney, and left him paralysed from the waist down.

The 38-year-old sales manager said the couple's first concern was their son, believing that maybe the knife attack had been a diversion for someone wanting their child.

But he praised sales assistants in Bees Knees for quickly summoning help and making sure their baby was safe.

After initial treatment at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, it was decided that Mr. Jable should be sent overseas for fear he had suffered neurological damage. The couple were flown out to the University of Chicago Hospital on Monday night.

Last night, Mr. Jable said he was likely to be in hospital for a couple of weeks, and would be off work for a while longer, but said it was a small price to pay for his life.

He added: "I may never regain all of the feeling in my left leg, but it will not mean that I can't use it. Unless things take a turn for the worse, that's the only thing that could be a problem in the future. All things considering, I don't think that's bad. At least I am still here."

"There is no doubt about it, this has been a life-altering event," said Mr. Jable. "It has obviously drawn us a lot closer. I think the emotional part of all of this is going to be very difficult to get over. Every time we close our eyes, we replay it in our minds. We still cry when we think about it."

The father said he and his wife would not let the incident put them off ever returning to Bermuda. "I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," said a philosophical Mr. Jable.

"This could have happened anywhere in the world. It's not what we expected to happen in Bermuda, but it has not put us off. We can't hold everyone in Bermuda responsible for this. I would still feel safe walking down Front Street again.

But Mr. Jable was not so accommodating when it came to the man who stabbed him.

"He almost took everything from me. What do you say to someone who does that. Nobody has a right to do that to anyone," he said.

Police were still investigating the incident last night, but The Royal Gazette understands that a 23-year-old man arrested in Parliament Street soon afterwards in connection with the incident has been detained in St. Brendan's Hospital.