When University of Otago medical student Claire French was attacked and left for dead by machete-wielding robbers in Tanzania last year, her planned graduation was the last thing on her mind.
"I was lying on the main street in a pool of blood, with dire injuries and no way of communicating with the outside world, and no money or anything.
"I was essentially helpless.''
But at that low point of her life, her luck changed.
"A stranger on the street just arrived out of nowhere.''
In fact, two Tanzanian strangers helped the former Columba College pupil immediately after the attack and drove her to a hospital where a senior doctor secured her partly severed right hand with sutures.
At the hospital, the two strangers "stayed with me until I was able to get help''.
"Basically, they made sure I was OK.''
And after the attack, her mother, Dunedin resident Pauline Johnson, received a distressed Skype call from her at the Tanzanian hospital.
Ms Johnson said yesterday she was "very proud'' of her daughter and her imminent medical graduation.
Happier times have since returned and Dr French (35), an award-winning Otago biochemistry graduate who also has a PhD in anatomy from Auckland University, will graduate from Otago University today with an MBChB, in a ceremony at the Dunedin Town Hall.
"I'm just really excited,'' she said.
Last year, she had completed a final year six-week training elective as a medical volunteer in a hospital in Arusha, in northern Tanzania, a city which is the gateway to Mt Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak.
On September 25, shortly before she was due to leave the country, she was attacked by two muggers in the city's main street in broad daylight.
Rushing up from behind, they pushed her to the ground and kicked and beat her.
She was then attacked by a third man, swinging a machete.
Then the first two muggers also produced weapons and at one point all she could see was machetes.
The robbers wanted her backpack. After cutting its straps, they ran off with it.
Her right hand was partly severed, cut to the bone in five places, and her left wrist was also injured.
She managed to remain calm and focused, in order to help save her life, and used her medical knowledge.
After receiving initial hospital treatment, she then flew to Canada, as planned, where she was due to undertake the second six-week phase of her training elective.
There she was operated on by plastic surgeons, who repaired her hand, and she missed only two days of her planned programme.
Dr French still receives treatment for her injuries and still experiences pain, but has moved on.
"Yes, this horrible thing happened to me, but I'm not going to let it dictate the way I practise medicine or lead my life in the future,'' Dr French said.
And the mugging has not lowered her high opinion of Tanzania.
Her Tanzanian host family had been "incredibly good'' before and after the attack, and a great deal of compassion had also been shown to her by strangers, friends and medical staff, she said.
And Dr French, who is already practising medicine as a house officer at Lower Hutt Hospital, is looking forward not only to graduation but also to "giving something back'' as a medical professional caring for other people.
