Vanessa Murphy woke from a couch in partner Gary Desouza’s McGaffin Court lounge room about 11pm on Monday to see the Zimbabwean-born man dripping blood from a wound between his shoulder and neck.

The floors of the home’s hallway and bathroom were splattered with blood, and the mattress in a bedroom where Mr Desouza, 40, had briefly laid, was soaked.

Ms Murphy, who is five months’ pregnant, said she was alarmed at the amount of blood throughout the house and called an ambulance.

When I got up, there was blood just everywhere,” she said.

“I didn’t know there was a blade stuck in him — I don’t think he did either.”

Paramedics wrapped Mr Desouza’s wound and took him to Albury hospital.

Ms Murphy said he was conscious throughout the ordeal.

“He was worried ... telling me ‘look after the baby’ and all that sort of stuff,” she said.

“They didn’t realise (he had been stabbed) until he got to X-ray.

“It’s apparently a 5cm blade, stuck in only millimetres away from his spine.

“I couldn’t believe it, I was so shocked.”

Ms Murphy does not live with her partner and said it was lucky she had been there to raise the alarm.

“It was me who rang to tell the ambulance to come — I said ‘this is ridiculous, we’ve got to get to the hospital’,” she said.

“He probably would have bled to death (otherwise).”

Police believe the handle of the weapon, an inexpensive kitchen knife, snapped on impact with Mr Desouza’s skin.

The handle, which still had about 3cm of slightly serrated blade attached to it, was retrieved near the scene and taken into evidence.

Detectives have not yet been able to interview Mr Desouza but believe he was among a group who had been drinking alcohol and had argued with another man outside a nearby property.

The pensioner felt a blow to his neck and shoulder but returned home without realising he had been stabbed.

Mr Desouza was flown to Melbourne about 4am yesterday and underwent successful surgery to extract the blade at The Royal Melbourne hospital later in the morning.

Ms Murphy said hospital staff had advised her Mr Desouza, who moved to Australia about 10 years ago and has lived in McGaffin Court for about two years, was doing well and had been moved to a ward in a stable condition.

Police have identified a suspect and are expected to talk to Mr Desouza today as the investigation continues.

Ms Murphy and Mr Desouza’s flatmate, Dwayne Ward, were left with the task of cleaning the bloodstained public housing property.

Mr Ward had not been home at the time of the attack and returned about 7.30am yesterday.

“About the third time I went into the bedroom, I lifted up the pillow. (The blood) was congealed. It made me dry retch,” he said.

Ms Murphy said violence was not uncommon in McGaffin Court but the stabbing had taken it to a new level.

“A lot of stuff happens in this court, a lot of fighting but not this,” she said.

“Have a drink, have a bit of an altercation, have a blue, whatever, but not to the point where you’ve got to stab somebody — that’s just stupid.”