A mother has praised the trauma team at St George's Hospital after saving the life of her son following a violent attack.

Brett Connolly walking back to his Mitcham home on the night of July 23 when he was suddenly attacked by a group of men.

He was taken to St George's shortly after but his mum Felicity feared the worst.

"When he was brought into hospital I was told he was technically dead," she said.

"He was in surgery for six hours."

But Brett survived, something Felicity will be eternally grateful for.

"The trauma team saved his life," she said.

"I praise them so much for the work they did."

Philip D’Arcy is a consultant in emergency medicine at St George’s and was in charge of the trauma team the night of the attack.

"As a major trauma centre (MTC), St George’s is staffed by specialist teams 24/7 so that patients like Brett with serious life-threatening injuries can quickly access the best care and treatment facilities," he said.

"Thanks to our multi-disciplinary team, Brett received immediate care from staff in our emergency department as well as our surgical, anaesthetic and therapy teams, to name just a few.

"St George’s MTC also benefits from the organisation Redthread – a youth violence intervention programme – who have youth workers on hand in our emergency department to support young patients affected by violence."

But unfortunately for the Connolly family, Brett is still recovering, both physically and mentally.

His family are raising money to get therapy for Brett. Click here to view the GoFundMe page.

"His throat was lacerated, he can't move his toes because he was stabbed in the leg and the nerve damage to his eyes means that one is now permanently open," Felicity added.

What makes things even harder is that Brett, a father to a five-year-old boy named Riley, wasn't the intended victim of the shocking attack.

"Nobody knows why he was the target.

"For someone who is not involved in gangs or drugs, he just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."

The fact he was not the intended target was something police confirmed while adding that no arrests had been made.

His family are now raising money to get therapy for Brett.

"He's worked all his life, he'd been to college, done a plumbing degree and deep down he just wants to get back to work," Felicity added.

"We've been told that there could be a five-month wait for therapy on the NHS - no fault of theirs - so now we're trying to get private counselling because he needs it now."

This led her to start a GoFundMe page that has already raised more than £2,000 at the time of publishing this story.

"You’re used to having a wage coming in but that’s not really happening," Felicity added.

"He's suffering from PTSD now and every bit of money will help support him."