In the eight years since she cheated death in an ax attack at her local 7-Eleven, Sharon Hacker has suffered terrifying heart attack symptoms that are so severe that she has to rush to a hospital emergency unit. .
Ms Hacker was considered the luckiest of the victims of trans union organizer Evie Amati’s bloody attack at an Enmore service station in Sydney’s inner west on January 7, 2017, but has revealed how the ordeal marked for life.
That night, Hacker, 42, went out to get a carton of milk around 2:20 a.m.
The other customer queuing at the servo next to him, senior project coordinator Ben Rimmer, 32, was buying a cake on the way home with his pregnant wife after having a few beers with his friends.
When an angry and drugged Amati, then 24, walked in with her 2kg ax and an 18cm knife in her back pocket, they didn’t stand a chance.
As they lined up in front of the cash register, Amati swung the ax at Rimmer first, nearly severing his head in two.
As she lay bleeding on the ground, Amati slammed the ax into the base of Sharon Hacker’s skull with both hands.
As she lay helpless on the ground, Amati dealt her a second fierce blow that would have been fatal, but fortunately narrowly missed.
While buying milk at a 7-Eleven in 2017, Sharon Hacker was hit in the head by Evie Amati’s 2kg ax and now suffers permanent symptoms resembling cardiac arrest.
Amati swings his ax over Sharon Hacker’s head with both hands, having practiced at home by chopping up her couch before walking 1,500 feet to carry out his intention to “kill a lot of people.”
Stepping over Sharon, Amati strutted past the petrol cannons clutching his bloody ax as he searched for a third victim on the busy Stanmore Road.
Rimmer needed hours of surgery, four titanium plates in his face and only spoke of death or brain damage and blindness by mere millimeters.
Police said Hacker had been lucky to escape more serious injuries.
But in reality he hadn’t. His thick dreadlock hairstyle may have saved him a lot of damage.
But Amati’s ax swing, practiced on her living room couch before walking 1,500 feet to the store with a mission to “kill a lot of people,” shattered Sharon’s occipital bone.
This is the shallow, curved, dish-shaped bone at the back base of the skull, which allows the spinal cord to pass through its large oval opening.
Amati’s killing intent and two-handed action broke Sharon’s occipital into several places.
She had to wear a cervical collar for months and suffered shooting pains in her arm and hand, as well as chest pains and trouble sleeping.
Sharon Hacker (right) at the register buying milk as Evie Amati enters with her ax and an 18cm knife in her back pocket, read to kill.
Smiling, a delighted Evie Amati walks out of prison Monday after serving just eight years for trying to kill three people with a 5-pound ax inside a suburban 7-Eleven.
Amati’s crude new prison tattoo has the words ‘DEAD’ written in capital letters on the fingers of his left hand.
Mrs Hacker lost 25kg, suffers continuous nerve pain and her daughter became agoraphobic and was terrified of going out at night.
The agonizing sharp pains have repeatedly made Ms Hacker feel like she is about to go into cardiac arrest.
After several visits to the ER, a physical therapist revealed that the permanent damage may resemble a heart attack.
“I’ve been rushed to the emergency room several times,” he told Daily Mail Australia.
“This has meant something good: I’ve had to maintain good heart health.”
After seeing Amati released from prison on Monday, having served her minimum sentence of just eight years for three attempted murders, Ms Hacker admitted she did not believe the release set a good precedent.
But she was generous to the criminal and had hope for a better future.
Hacker, who has become a social worker since the attack and is now dedicated to improving other people’s lives, said she believes in “people’s ability to change.”
Sharon Hacker, above after the attack, said she wore a cervical collar for months and suffered shooting pains in her arm and hand, chest pain and trouble sleeping.
Ben Rimmer required hours of surgery, four titanium plates in his face and had escaped death or brain damage and blindness.
Sharon Hacker, above after Amati’s conviction, lost 25kg, suffers from ongoing nerve pain and her daughter became agoraphobic and was terrified of going out at night.
“There is a fairly long probation period with strict conditions and Evie’s behavior was heavily linked to drugs and alcohol,” he said.
“So I hope the right decisions were made.
“I hope for the good of society that it has changed and if not, that things will not go badly for it.”
Evie Amati, now 32, will be on probation until her full sentence expires in 2031.