A man attacked in a deadly sword attack in East London has thanked the emergency services and his family for saving his life. Henry De Los Rios Polania, 35, an IT engineer from Hainault , praised police for ‘risking their lives’ in a social media post after being wounded in the hand in his home on Tuesday morning (April 30).
Mr De Los Rios Polania’s sister, Jessica De Los Rios, 31, called her brother a ‘hero’ for protecting his family from the swordsman. In a post on Instagram Stories he wrote: “I would like to start by thanking all the nurses, paramedics, and the doctors on the NHS for keeping me alive. To the great work of police… for risking their lives.”
He also thanked ‘friends and family’ and those who ensure he did not ‘bleed out’. Mr De Los Rios Polania added: “I’m recovering. I have a long journey ahead but I’m very positive that this trauma will end soon.”
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Marcus Arduini Monzo, 36, a dual Spanish-Brazilian national living in Newham, East London, has appeared in court accused of murdering 14-year-old Daniel Anjorin as he was walking to school on Tuesday, and injuring four other people.
Ms De Los Rios previously told the PA news agency that her brother was recovering in hospital after sustaining a deep wound to his hand. “It’s a very long process to get his hand recovered, due to this wound,” she said, adding: “He’s awake, he’s in hospital,” but “he lost a lot of blood” and “it’s going to be a really long, traumatising recovery for him.”
“He’s very devastated to believe something like this could happen,” she said, adding: “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.”
Mr De Los Rios Polania and his family are originally from Colombia but have lived in the UK for several years.
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