Last June, Brittney Thomas-Ljungberg was randomly attacked by an unknown assailant in the Exchange District.

The attack left her with a split right eye, causing a "globe rupture." She was rushed to hospital for an emergency surgery at the Misericordia Health Centre's Ophthalmology Assessment Unit, where a surgeon repaired the damage and put her on a long road to recovery.

Thomas-Ljungberg wasn't sure if she would ever see again, but after months of recovery with a surgical retinal specialist and multiple surgeries, she has her vision back.

She says straight lines get a little blurry when she focuses with her right eye, but aside from that's it's been smooth sailing.

"I can see, which is a hundred times better than what was the original diagnoses of 'hey, you're going in for surgery and you might not have your eye when you come back out,' so I'll take it," Thomas-Ljungberg told reporters at the Misericordia Health Centre today. "There was a lot of waiting rooms, then you have surgeries and then you have the healing."

"It was the middle of July so I spent a lot of time just hanging out. But I had a lot of friends who would come by and describe movies to me."

In July, Thomas-Ljungberg's retina detached with persistent bleeding, meaning she needed a second emergency surgery to remove the lens of her eye to repair the detachment. 

In October, Dr. Frank Stockl was able to insert a new lens implant and Thomas-Ljungberg’s eye is now stable with 20/25 vision.

Thomas-Ljungberg says she handled the situation well and always tries to keep her spirits up.

"I'm a fairly reasonable person so I just took it as it came and was never overly upset," she said. "I went back to work and I serve, so at first I had to wear a patch because otherwise I was getting dizzy. It was kind of funny at that time because I'd be pouring someone's wine and I'd make the joke 'hope you want to drink that off the table because I don't have depth perception' but otherwise I wasn't overly emotional at all."

"In fact, I think a lot of people projected that on to me more than anything else."

Dr. Stockl is the surgical retinal specialist who worked with Thomas-Ljungberg throughout her recovery and will continue to work with her in the future.

He says when someone comes in with an injury like hers it's usually a toss up as to whether or not they'll see again, but often it depends on the severity of the damage.

"It can vary from losing your eye completely to having an excellent outcome like she did," Dr. Stockl said. "It was very injured. Her eye was open so she had no pressure and there was a laceration that would have been 10 to 15 millimeters long that needed stitches to put her eye back together so the inside of her eye isn't exposed to the outside environment and her eye pressure would return."

Winnipeg Police haven't arrested a suspect in Thomas-Ljungberg's case. She says they had a person of interest at one point but nothing came of it. She says she hopes her experience won't give people a negative view of downtown Winnipeg.

Dr. Stockl says Thomas-Ljungberg will have checkups every six months for the next few years. After that, she will likely have to go for yearly checkups for her rest of her life.