Just three days after moving into a Capitol Hill rowhouse, a woman was attacked in her home by an intruder who stabbed her 17 times and tried to sexually assault her. The victim fought back, and was able to crawl outside and scream for help.

"I woke up to screaming," recalled the victim's neighbor, Kate McFadden. "I think she was saying, 'I don't want to die. I don't want to die.'"

The victim's father says his daughter is a fighter. She certainly fought the intruder, bruising her hands in the process.

The victim, 23, suffered two collapsed lungs and kidney damage. She underwent surgery and remains hospitalized, but is expected to survive.

The attack took place late Monday night, just after midnight. The woman was in her basement bedroom when she heard a noise in the first-floor kitchen of her home in the 500 block of 14th Street SE, neighbor said. She thought it might be one of her two female housemates, but then the person came downstairs, neighbors said.

"She said, 'Hello' and saw that it wasn't her roommate," said Julie Scofield, a neighbor. "So she grabbed her cellphone and ran into the bathroom and called 911."

Police say the attacker tried to sexually assault the victim. She fought back, repeatedly punching him in the face as he stabbed her 17 times.

The woman crawled outside for help. Another neighbor, Julie Scofield, was the first to arrive. She says she was in shock about what she saw. "It was hard to take in," she said. "I had to step out to make sure someone was calling the police. She didn't want me to leave; she was scared."

The victim's roommates were sleeping upstairs during the attack. Police believe the intruder may have gotten in through an unlocked rear kitchen window.

The victim had moved to D.C. in August and moved into the Capitol Hill rowhouse on Saturday, according to her father. She told him she's not leaving D.C., because she loves it here, he said.