Martilynn Checots still has the hands she used to defend herself against a man with a samurai sword.

Her hands, and her life, were saved by doctors and nurses during a marathon session in an operating room at Swedish Medical Center.Checots, 17, of Littleton was in serious but stable condition after being slashed and run through with an 18-inch sword.

"She's awake and talking, doing pretty well," Dr. James Harwood said. "But she'll be some time recovering from her wounds."

Police say Checots was attacked Monday by her ex-boyfriend, Larry Ray Fitch, 21, of Aurora. He apparently became enraged after she rejected his attempts to reconcile, Arapahoe County Sheriff Pat Sullivan said.

Authorities say that after attacking Checots, Fitch plunged the weapon into his chest, nicking the fibrous sac around the heart called the pericardium. He was listed in fair condition at Swedish after undergoing surgery, during which doctors had to pry out the sword he imbedded in his chest. He'll be charged with attempted first-degree murder and assault, Sullivan said.

Dr. Robert Bass was among four surgeons who worked on Checots' hands for 13 hours to repair massive damage, especially to her right hand.

"I think she was trying to protect herself," Bass said. "There was only one bone in her right hand that wasn't severed; everything else was cut through."

Peering at her hands through operating microscopes, the surgeons used plates, screws, wires and sutures thinner than a human hair to repair the damage, Bass said. There are hundreds of stitches in her hands, Bass said.