Independent MP Helen Haines has lost both legs after an alleged targeted attack in Wangaratta on Monday afternoon, but she remained in a stable condition two days later. Phil Haines said his wife survived “an horrendous incident” and that the family was focused on the fact she is alive and stable.
That update is the reason the case has drawn so much attention today. Haines, the federal MP for Indi, had been in a critical but stable condition after the incident, and surgeons tried to save her right leg on Tuesday before both legs had to be amputated because of the seriousness of her injuries.
Phil Haines said the recovery ahead would be long, but he described his wife as a fighter with “the sharpest intellect” and said the most important thing for the family was that her heart and mind were still in good shape. He said he and Helen Haines have been married for nearly 40 years and have three children and two grandchildren.
The picture around the case is stark. Police allege Monday’s attack was targeted, and Brendan Nugent has been charged with dangerous driving causing serious injury, intentionally causing serious injury and the Commonwealth offence of causing harm to a Commonwealth public official. He faced Wangaratta magistrates court earlier on Wednesday, the same day Phil Haines gave an update at Melbourne’s Alfred hospital.
Sam Mostyn joined Phil Haines for the briefing and praised Haines’s work as a local representative, calling the violent attack on her a moment for people to pause and choose to be better. The question now is not whether Haines will survive; it is how much of her life she can rebuild after injuries that were severe enough to cost her both legs, while the criminal case moves through court.
