Woman in coma for 31 years after horrific car accident on Christmas Eve 1991 dies, leaving devoted husband – who visited her every day in care 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
A heartbroken husband has confirmed his wife has died after being in a coma for more than three decades following a horrific car accident on Christmas Eve in 1991.
Miriam Visintin, from Riese, Veneto, died May 10 at San Bassiano Hospital, where she had been taken two months ago due to a buildup of fluid in her lungs.
She had been in a coma since she crashed her Fiat Panda on Christmas Eve 1991 in Casoni di Mussolente, Veneto, and suffered an inoperable brain injury as a result.
Her husband of 33 years, Angelo Farina, said after Miriam died of cardiac arrest: “She was finally at peace for her wrongs… Finally she is up there in peace and in paradise.”
He continued, “We had only been married for a year and a half when disaster struck. We were so young and had so many projects… fate has been cruel to her. She didn’t deserve any of this.’
Angelo Farina (left) is photographed with his young wife Miriam before the tragic accident in 1991
Farina (pictured) has visited his wife in various care homes almost every day since the crash
Miriam fell into a coma after suffering serious head injuries in the 1991 crash when her car lost control on a frozen surface and hit a pole.
It would be the couple’s second Christmas together after their wedding in 1990, having met and fallen in love at a disco in Mussolente a few years earlier.
Doctors told Angelo after the crash that his wife probably wouldn’t survive the night.
Dedicated, he said: ‘When I married her, I swore to stand by her through thick and thin.’
Miriam was originally moved to the La Madonnina residential home for life-saving care.
She was later transferred to the 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 — making an exception only during the pandemic.
“I went every day, during lunch break, for at least 15 minutes. Sometimes I even managed to go in the evening,” he said La Republic after the funeral on Saturday.
He said, “If I went back, I’d do it all over again.”
Angelo told La Repubblica that he “immediately decided to stay there beside her, forever, until the last of her days.”
“It was very difficult,” he recalled. Not an easy situation to accept. I had so much anger inside. Such a beautiful, good and special girl should not have ended like this.’
Friends and family attended Miriam’s funeral at the parish church in her hometown yesterday morning.
Miriam Visintin (pictured) died on May 10, 2023 after cardiac arrest in hospital
The mayor of Cassola left a tributesaying, ‘What struck me very much, besides the tragedy of a vegetative life that lasted 31 years, is the closeness of her husband, perpetuated for so long in daily gestures of love.
“In a very self-centered world, this example gives reason to believe that humanity still exists.”