Video taking off 20x its usual first day

Phil Haines says Helen's "heart and mind are in good shape"

At Melbourne's Alfred hospital, the independent MP's husband confirms that surgeons removed both of her legs and that she is stable.

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Guardian Australia Story of October 22, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 101,503 views a day, 20 times a normal first day on this channel (4,983).

Helen Haines has lost both legs but ‘heart and mind are in good shape’, husband says

Phil Haines begins with the family. He speaks for the couple's three children and two newborn grandchildren, and for his and Helen's brothers and their families. Then he delivers the news: "Helen's left leg was amputated on Monday," and "the surgeons had to also remove her right leg."

The independent MP was seriously injured on Monday in an alleged targeted attack near her electorate office in north-east Victoria. Her husband gave his update late Wednesday at Melbourne's Alfred hospital, with the hospital's backdrop behind him. He calls it a horrendous incident and says she faces a long road to recovery.

"Helen is alive and she's stable," he says. "That is the most important thing for our family."

He then explains which parts of his wife matter most to the family: "her heart and her mind." He describes her intellect and calls her "a very compassionate, caring, loving person," before ending with the line that gives the clip its title: "both her heart and her mind are in good shape."

The statement runs about two minutes. In its first 20 hours it drew around 94,000 views, while this channel's Shorts usually open with a few thousand.

It was not the only widely watched part of Guardian Australia's coverage that day. In another clip, Australian federal police commissioner Krissy Barrett says police are "charging almost one individual every week for targeting commonwealth parliamentarians or high office holders." She adds that the AFP had no specific intelligence that an attack like Monday's would happen. The channel also posted independent senator David Pocock's tribute to Haines at the National Press Club, where he called her "the MP we all wish we had."

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