This man wants to know if you saved his life 27 years ago in Ottawa

Calgarian Dave Murphy wants to find the paramedics he credits with saving his life after a violent attack 27 years ago outside of an Ottawa mall.

Though Murphy saidthe details are foggy from that day, he remembers a man and a woman paramedic attending to him after he got into a violentphysical altercation with three men on March 28, 1994.

"I just remember being outside the mall and getting into a verbal discussion with a group of guys and one of them coming at me," he saidon The Homestretch Wednesday.

"There were three of them on me, and I walked away thinking nothing happened and I put my hand on my leg and it was completely red and I fell to the ground."

He saidhe later learned he had multiple stab wounds, a severely cut leg muscle and a punctured lung from the attacks.

Road to healing

Murphy said that afterbeing taken toCHEO (a pediatric hospital and research centre in Ottawa) he was transferred to the Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus, and after he was discharged.

He says following that, he battled severe PTSD and had to relearn to walk.

He said it wouldstress him out to see anyone who resembled the men who attacked him.

When he got married, his wifeand later his daughterbecame motivating reasons for him to get help for what he was going through.

"I said, you know what I need to go get this fixed before I have a kid come into my life. So, that was my big wake-up call," he said.

Murphy has never sought out the men who attacked him. He saidthey were all teenagers at the time, he being 18 years old, thoughhe knows they were eventually charged.

He is, however, seeking out the paramedics who attended to him that day.

Quest for thanks

Murphy saidif the paramedicswho rode with him in the ambulancehadn't been there to look after him, he would havedied.

In 2015, after he had worked on bettering his mental health, Murphystarted the process of searching for them.

He said his search has mostly led to dead ends but he has not given up.

His next move will be to contact the hospitalwhere he was treatedand request the ambulance report.

"It'll bring closure for me I plan on having my wife and our six-year-old girl there, even if it's online and just say thank you, I wouldn't have this," said Murphy.

Paying it forward

Part of Murphy's journey to health included a goal to lose some weight, so walking would be easier and he couldkeep up with his daughter.

He has started a fundraising campaign tied to his weight-loss journey and has raised nearly $3,000, all to be donated to Can Praxis, which provides horse therapy for veterans and first responders who require treatment for stress injuries.

"Since this happened to me,I've always been doing this to try and pay it forward," said Murphy.