Amazing knife-in-the-neck story (and photo)

This story has circulated for several days, but today a photo in a Tumblr blog finally led me to the Daily Mail Online, which says the picture corresponds to the story:

Julia Popova, 22, was stabbed by a mugger as she walked home from work one day last autumn - but she was so traumatised by the attack that she walked home without realising the knife was embedded in her, just a fraction of an inch from her spinal cord...

'This is our photo, she was here,' a senior doctor at the hospital in the north of the Russian capital told the MailOnline last night...

The low quality of the image, which was published in British newspapers today, led to speculation it was faked - especially since it first appeared in a brash Moscow tabloid newspaper and on a website widely believed by locals to run stories of doubtful authenticity...

But he said: 'The case was last autumn. She spent about 40 minutes walking home after she was attacked.'

Despite the length of the blade, he said, it missed her spinal cord and major arteries in her neck.

'The knife was stuck in her bone,' he said. 'It's an absolutely unique and extraordinary case. She was so lucky. The only thing damaged was the bone.'

You can read the rest of the story at the link.