A 60-year-old mother has tragically died after being in a coma for over 30 years following a car crash that killed her baby daughter.
Luigina Brustolin, then 27, and her daughter Sara, 1, were seriously injured in a tragic car accident in Pederobba, in the Italian province of Treviso, on May 23, 1992.
Little Sara was in intensive care for 35 days before succumbing to her injuries shortly before her second birthday on June 29, 1992, while her young mother, who had suffered a serious head injury, fell into an irreversible coma.
Ms Brustolin was in the coma for 33 years until she her heart gave out and she died on February 7, ‘joining her little girl’, her heartbroken family said in a statement.
The horror accident that cost little Sara’s life saw Ms Brustolin in her Golf colliding with a Nissan Primera driven by a 46-year-old Italian man.
It is still unclear what exactly led to the collision and one alleged witness who is believed to have seen the accident was never tracked down.
Ms Brustolin’s mother cared for her for 17 years before passing away, after which Luigiana was taken to a nursing home.
She had been married to her husband Franco Reghin for a few years and had been a mother for less than two when the accident happened.
Luigina Brustolin has spent over half her life in a coma after the deadly accident in Pederobba, in the Italian province of Treviso, on May 23 1992
Ms Brustolin with her husband, Franco, and her one-and-a-half-year-old daughter Sara. Ms Brustolin, then 27, was seriously injured in the crash while her daughter Sara, was transported to hospital in serious condition but passed away after 35 days
Mr Reghin, who was just 26 years old at the time of the accident, told local media at the time: ‘That morning […] I lost everything and my life changed completely.’
He heartbreakingly said he was by his baby daughter’s side during her last days.
‘I slept in an intensive care room and, when they allowed me, I visited her; from the very first moment, however, I was told that she wouldn’t make it,’ Mr Reghin told Il Gazzettino.
‘Sara was aware of everything; I remember her tears and mine too. She would have turned two on July 16, but her funeral took place on her second birthday.’
The widower eventually remarried and went on to have two children with his new wife. They are now 25 and 23 years old, according to reports.
He said that his children knew Ms Brustolin as ‘Aunt Luigina’, saying: ‘I started a new life and this didn’t go down well with some people.
‘However, I never abandoned Luigina. On Saturdays and Sundays I brought her to my house: for my children, who were small, she was simply Aunt Luigina.
‘The last time I visited her was a month ago.’
After 33 years in a coma, Ms Brustolin has passed away. In a statement her family said: ‘After all this time, she has joined her little girl’
Ms Brustolin’s condition worsened last week around her 60th birthday on February 1 and she was taken to hospital where she passed away on February 7, according to Italian media, after spending 33 years in the coma.
Friends and relatives who visited Ms Brustolin said she rarely responded to stimuli, but would sometimes open and close her eyes.
Her funeral will be held on Wednesday, February 12 at 3pm in the parish church of Colbertaldo, after which her body will be cremated.
