‘Thank you for keeping me alive’... sword terror dad’s message to medics
A HERO dad who protected his wife and young daughter from a swordsman after he broke into their bedroom as they slept has thanked the emergency services for saving his life.
Henry De Los Rios Polania, 35, was slashed in the arm and body during a series of attacks in Hainault, East London, on Tuesday morning, which left a teenage boy dead.
IT engineer Henry managed to shield his four-year-old daughter from the intruder, who yelled at the family asking if they believed in God.
Yesterday Henry posted a photo to social media from his hospital bed, where he is recovering from his terrifying ordeal.
He wrote: “I would like to start by thanking all the nurses, paramedics, and the doctors on the NHS for keeping me alive.”
He went on to thank the police “for risking their lives”, as well as “friends and family and all those who made sure I did not bleed out”.
Trauma
“I’m recovering,” he added in his post on Instagram Stories. “I have a long journey ahead but I’m very positive that this trauma will end soon.
“Thank you God for giving me the strength to protect my family, I am blessed.”
Henry was one of four people wounded in the attacks. They also include a pedestrian who was hit by a van and two police officers who were hospitalised with sword injuries.
A fifth victim, 14-year-old Daniel Anjorin, was killed as he made his way to school.
Marcus Arduini Monzo, 36, a dual Spanish-Brazilian national living in Newham, East London, appeared in court on Thursday accused of Daniel’s murder as well as attempted murder and other charges.
The “mystic-musician”, who had until recently run a landscape gardening company, was remanded in custody to appear at the Old Bailey on Tuesday. Following the attacks, Henry’s sister Jessica De Los Rios, 31, revealed her brother had been left “traumatised” and that the rest of the family were unable to sleep.
She said: “He’s very devastated to believe something like this could happen.” And she added: “To us, he’s our hero. He protected them – my niece and my sister-in-law. They were just literally sleeping, opened their eyes to see a man with a big machete sword.
“He felt helpless in the moment but to us he is our hero. It could have been extremely worse.”
Daniel’s relatives said his loss had left “a gaping wound in the family” and “no family should have to go through what we are experiencing”. His school, Bancroft’s in Woodford Green, remembered him as a “true scholar” with a “gentle character”.
Just last June its former pupil Grace O’Malley-Kumar, 19, was knifed to death by schizophrenic Valdo Calocane as she walked home from a Nottingham nightclub.