A woman who has been in a coma for 31 years after the horror of the 1991 Christmas Eve car crash dies, leaving her devoted husband – who visited her daily in a nursing home – devastated
Miriam Visintin crashed her car into a pole and suffered a brain injury in 1991
She died of cardiac arrest in hospital on Wednesday, her husband confirmed
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A devastated husband has confirmed his wife died after more than three decades in a coma following a horrific car crash on Christmas Eve in 1991.
Miriam Visintin, from Riese, Veneto, died on May 10 at San Bassiano hospital where she had been transferred two months ago due to an accumulation of fluid in her lungs.
She had been in a coma since her Fiat Panda crashed in Casoni di Mussolente, Veneto, on Christmas Eve 1991, suffering an inoperable brain injury as a result.
Her husband of 33 years, Angelo Farina, said after Miriam’s death from cardiac arrest: “She finally had peace for her injustice… At last she is up there in peace and in heaven.”
He continued: “We had only been married for a year and a half when tragedy struck. We were so young and had so many plans… fate was cruel to her. She didn’t deserve all of this.
Angelo Farina (left) is pictured with his young wife Miriam before the tragic accident in 1991
Farina (pictured) has visited his wife in different care homes almost every day since the accident
Miriam went into a coma after suffering serious head injuries from the 1991 accident, when her car lost control on a frozen surface and hit a pole.
It was to be the couple’s second Christmas together after marrying in 1990, meeting at a nightclub in Mussolente a few years earlier and falling in love.
Doctors told Angelo after the accident that his wife was unlikely to survive the night.
devoted, he said: ‘When I married her, I swore to support her through thick and thin.’
Miriam was first transferred to La Madonnina residential home for life-saving treatment.
She was then transferred to Casa Sturm, where she remained until she was transferred to San Bassiano following a pleural effusion.
Her husband said he visited the hospital every day, often several times a day – with one exception only during the pandemic.
‘I went there every day, during the lunch break, at least 15 minutes. Sometimes I even managed to go there at night,” he said. The Republic after Saturday’s funeral.
He said, “If I came back, I’d do it again.”
Angelo told La Repubblica that he “decided right away to stay there next to her, forever, until the last of her days”.
“It was very difficult,” he said to himself. “It is not an easy situation to accept. I had so much anger inside. Such a beautiful, good and special girl shouldn’t have ended up like this.
Friends and family attended Miriam’s funeral at the parish church in her hometown yesterday morning.
Miriam Visintin (pictured) died after suffering cardiac arrest in hospital on May 10, 2023
The mayor of Cassola left a tributesaying: ‘What struck me a lot, besides the drama of a vegetative life that lasted 31 years, was the closeness to her husband, perpetuated in daily gestures of love for so long.
“In a very self-centered world, this example suggests that humanity still exists.”