ATLANTA — A man who survived a machete attack at his work is back home after nearly three months in Atlanta hospitals.
Channel 2 Action News has been sharing Chris Sullens’ journey to recovery since uncovering the crime in June.
“The only thing that I really dread out of all of this is having to go to court,” Sullens told Channel 2′s Courtney Francisco.
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Coming home takes him one step closer to that milestone.
“I wouldn’t want anybody to go through this,” Sullens said.
On June 20, he was at work at Advantage Homeless Day Center on North Ave. when according to police, a client of his, Cedric Smith, attacked Sullens with a machete.
The arrest warrant accuses Smith of hitting Sullens in the head with the machete five times.
It left Sullens on life support with a broken skull.
Doctors had to remove one of his eyes.
He was able to move from Grady Memorial Hospital to the Shepherd Center in Buckhead.
That facility specializes in traumatic brain injury treatment.
Now, he’s home.
He laughed when he said “It’s tiring. It’s just been go, go, go, go, go,” Sullens said.
He said one of his first stops was back where the attack happened.
“I made up my mind that I was just going to get it over with and not let it control me,” said Sullens.
Sullens also gave his official statement to police investigators.
Plus, he got his two small dogs back.
“They went right into the old routine,” Sullens said. “So, that really helped me a lot being back into my space.”
He said a pet boarding business named Mutty Paws kept them for free.
On top of that, strangers have donated thousands to help ease his financial burden.
Sullens doesn’t know when or if he will get to go back to work full-time.
He said he wants to begin volunteering and helping counsel others who are living with a traumatic brain injury.
His goal is to learn to drive himself again next year.
For now, he is living in the moment.
“I’m planning on taking some trips, having a little fun, and taking care of me right now,” Sullens said.
Smith faces two counts of aggravated assault and two counts of possession of a knife during the commission of a felony.
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Criminal records show Smith was out on probation when the attack happened.
He served prison time for cutting a man in the neck with a razor blade.
In 2013, he threatened a woman with a knife on an Athens sidewalk, according to court records.
A date for the Grand Jury hearing in this case has not been announced.
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