Woman Dies after 31 Years in Coma

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A devastated husband has confirmed his wife has died after more than three decades spent in a coma following a horrific Christmas Eve car crash in 1991. 

Miriam Visintin, from Riese, Veneto, died on 10 May at the San Bassiano hospital where she had been moved two months ago due to a buildup of fluid in her lungs.

She had been in a coma since crashing her Fiat Panda 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 died of cardiac arrest, “She finally had peace for her injustice… Finally she’s up there in peace and in paradise.”

He continued, “We had only been married a year and a half when tragedy struck. We were so young and had so many projects… fate has been cruel to her. She didn’t deserve all of this.”

Miriam entered a coma after sustaining serious head wounds from the 1991 crash, when her car lost control on a frozen surface and hit a pole.

It was to be the couple’s second Christmas spent together after marrying in 1990, having met at a disco in Mussolente a few years before and fallen in love.

Doctors told Angelo after the crash that his wife would likely not survive the night.

Devoted, 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-preserving care.

She was later transferred to the Casa Sturm, where she stayed until she was moved to San Bassiano following a pleural effusion.

Her husband said he visited the hospital every day, often several times a day – only making an exception during the pandemic.

“I went every day, during the lunch break, at least 15 minutes. Sometimes I managed to go even in the evening,” he told La Repubblica after the funeral on Saturday.

He said, “If I went back, I would do it all over again.”

Angelo told La Repubblica he had “decided right away to stay there next to her, forever, until the last of her days.”

“It was very difficult,” he reflected. “Not an easy situation to accept. I had so much anger inside. Such a beautiful, good and special girl shouldn’t have ended that way.”

Friends and family attended Miriam’s funeral at the parish church at her hometown yesterday morning. 

The mayor of Cassola left a tribute, saying, “What struck me a lot, in addition to the tragedy of a vegetative life that lasted 31 years, is the closeness of her husband, perpetuated in daily gestures of love for so long.

“In a very self-centered world, this example gives reason to believe that humanity still exists.”

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