ALEX is convinced he's blessed. His hospital trauma doctor certainly agrees.

The image of a 30-centimetre kitchen knife embedded in his face is too shocking to show here, but his hospital X-ray reveals how lucky he is to be alive.

An X-ray of Alex's skull.

On March 20, Alex, 19, and a group of friends gathered in Pyrmont for his brother's 21st birthday. They booked an apartment and enjoyed an incident-free night at Star City casino. As they were heading home, trouble flared.

''A friend got involved in an argument with two guys behind me. I turned back to see if he was all right. Before I knew it, a fight broke out,'' Alex said. ''One of the guys threw a punch in my face, or at least I thought it was a punch. He stabbed me in the head with a knife.''