An American woman made a startling revelation when she said how her breast implants saved her from being killed by a jealous lover.

The 41-year-old woman was stabbed repeatedly in the chest by a jealous love rival - but, luckily for her, instead of going into her heart the knife pierced her newly enlarged breast.

Doctors informed the woman, who does not wish to be identified, that the saline inside the implant saved her life.

"That was the best investment I ever made," the Daily Mail quoted her as telling a Florida TV station.

Her surgeon Frank Filberto stated, "It was just really lucky, fortunate, just think about it three months ago if it happened to her, she would have been dead."

The women had undergone a breast enlargement operation three months ago by paying 6,000 dollars to have saline implants.

She told authorities she was attacked by her ex-fiance's new girlfriend in his apartment in Melbourne, Florida.

The Police said that the jealous ex - named Amy Winter - first scratched the victim's car, then turned the knife on her, stabbing her repeatedly in the left side of her chest.

"It happened so fast. I'm like, 'Put down the knife'. I look down, and I was covered in blood," the woman said.

She said she had realized that the knife had punctured the implant and she was soaked with saline.octors said the stab victim's breast implant had just enough saline in it to stop the knife from piercing through her chest.

"When you stab it, it gives a little. It probably gave and couldn't get through it, then it went through it and couldn't go through the back wall," Dr Filiberto said.

"She would have had a collapsed lung or (the knife would have) hit her heart," he said.

Filiberto said that in his 30 years of cosmetic surgery, this is the first time he had witnessed such an incident, and it gives him a whole new outlook.

"If this saves lives, there's nothing wrong with passing a law that everyone should have breast prosthesis," Filiberto joked.

Winter is facing assault charges. (ANI)