text: Neurosurgeon Dr Michael Wong (right) and his wife Dr Christine Wong outside the Supreme Court today. (AAP)
  
  Melbourne neurosurgeon Michael Wong feels no anger towards the mentally-ill patient who came close to killing him in a frenzied stabbing attack.
  
  If anything, he feels sorry for the Iranian refugee who came to Australia seeking a new life and will now spend 25 years "behind bars in a way" in a secure mental health facility.
  
  "I'm really pleased that this man finally will be getting the help that he needs," Dr Wong said.
  
  Kareem Al-Salami attacked his neurosurgeon in a Melbourne hospital foyer as Dr Wong arrived for work in February 2014, yelling "bastard I kill you" as he stabbed the doctor in the back.
  
  Al-Salami continued to stab and slash at Dr Wong as his victim lay on the ground screaming for help.
  
  He threatened patients and Western General Hospital staff who tried to stop him.
  
  Without the courage and quick-thinking of staff and members of the public in distracting Al-Salami and moving Dr Wong away from danger, the attack would have likely continued with possibly fatal consequences, Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth said.
  
  "Had Dr Wong not received immediate lifesaving surgery, it's highly likely that he would have died," the judge said on Wednesday.
  
  Kareem Al-Salami will undergo treatment at Thomas Embling hospital for a nominal term of 25 years. (AAP)
  
  Dr Wong had successfully operated on Al-Salami's spine in 2012, but the paranoid schizophrenic developed delusional beliefs that the operation had gone wrong and his neurosurgeon was conspiring with others to cover it up.
  
  Dr Wong has fully recovered from the attack, apart from a few aches and pains, and returned to work two years ago.
  
  "It's nothing short of a miracle that I am able to return to work as a neurosurgeon both physically and psychologically," he said in a court statement.
  
  Yet Dr Wong feels neither anger nor resentment towards Al-Salami, who he says is a seriously disturbed man.
  
  Al-Salami, formerly of Sunshine North, was found not guilty of attempted murder by reason of mental impairment.
  
  But Justice Hollingworth was unable to send the 49-year-old to the secure Thomas Embling Hospital until Wednesday because there was no room.
  
  Dr Wong was pleased Al-Salami will no longer be held in a prison or remand centre unable to properly care for a psychiatric patient.
  
  "Finally he is able to be in the right place to get some treatment and also the duration or length of the sentence hopefully will allow him to have the treatment that he desperately needs and also keep the rest of society safe."
  
  Dr Wong says he is enjoying exploring new horizons in neurosurgery offered by technologies such as 3D printing.
  
  But he has reduced the time he devotes to the public hospital system and no longer practises at Western General Hospital.
  
  Dr Wong says security improvements at public hospitals have been piecemeal and tokenistic since his attack and wants more done to protect doctors and nurses from violent or drug-affected patients.
summary: A judge has sentenced a mentally ill man who stabbed a doctor in a Melbourne hospital to a nominal term of 25 years in a secure psychiatric hospital.