Life changed in an instant.

Moira Cauchi and a friend of hers were looking forward to an evening out together when a car hit her at 110 kilometres an hour as she was crossing the road on a pedestrian crossing in Gzira. The impact lifted her over the centre strip onto the opposing lane.

The friend had instinctively pulled back to safety, but Moira, 50 at the time, was seriously injured and was quickly rushed to Mater Dei Hospital, where she spent a few days in intensive care as she started her long road back to recovery.

She survived, but life dramatically changed for Moira and her family that fateful day, 16 September 2016. Moira has since been able to walk again and resume a semblance of a normal life, but she is no longer the same woman. A bubbly, outgoing and opinionated woman who held the post of a bank manager now cannot perform the simplest of tasks. She cannot, for example, hold a conversation.

Her family remains constantly by her side, offering her total support, and helping her to move on, as much as she can. Their love and affection has been unaltered, if anything it has increased. But their heart breaks each time they look at her now and remember what she used to be.

“I miss her personality,” her husband Peter says as he sits next to Moira in their home.

Peter recounts how since the accident he had to learn how to manage the household, the family’s finances and learn how to cook, all duties which Moira used to take care of.

“He knows how to cook but always cooks the same dishes,” their daughter Valentina, 26, jumps in with a laughing tone as the interview was taking place.

Moira can speak, express her basic feelings and carry out basic tasks, but cannot hold adult conversations, Valentina adds.

A few days ago, a court of law found the driver who was behind the wheel when the accident took place guilty of dangerous and reckless driving. He was given a one-year prison term suspended for four years and fined €1,200.

But the judgment has done little to close the chapter. If anything, it has angered Moira’s family even more.

 

The accident and its aftermath

Moira was seriously injured at around 8.15pm on 16 September 2016. She was on her way to a dinner at a restaurant in Gzira with an old friend of hers. As they were crossing the road, a car, which was later found to have been travelling at 110kph catapulted her in the air, and she ended up on the other side of the road, seriously hurt. Her friend had luckily escaped with no injuries as she had pulled back onto the pavement, just in time to avoid impact.

Moira spent a total of nine months at Mater Dei Hospital, followed by another two spent in rehab at Karen Grech hospital.

In the first few days, she was kept in the intensive care unit, where she was sedated as doctors and nurses milled around her to provide her with the best possible treatment.

Valentina says that because of the severity of the accident, it took more than two weeks for the doctors to fully examine her body, as they could not take her in for the necessary x-ray and MRI scans.

The days that followed the accident were filled with news of broken bones and unexpected brain haemorrhages. For some time, it was also touch and go.

“She suffered a total of 80% disability,” Peter says, adding that this mostly stems from the brain injury she suffered.

Peter explains that the majority of Moira’s brain connectivity could not be cured, which had a drastic effect on her short-term memory capabilities.

The family was thrown into a new situation they quickly had to adapt to.

During these months, Valentina, then still 18, was a second-year university student. As one would expect, she was very stressed about her mother’s situation and this affected her performance in her course.

“I used to visit her during my breaks and in between my part-time jobs,” she says.

At the time of the accident, Peter was working in Germany on a full-time basis and had to give up his position to come back to Malta to be close to his family at such a difficult time.

“I used to wake up at 2am to complete my working hours early so that I could go visit her in the morning, followed by another visit in the afternoon,” he says.

“I couldn’t put all the responsibility on the children,” he adds on his decision to come back to work in Malta. Apart from Valentina, the couple has a son, Kai, who at that time was preparing to get married.

Moira’s accident forced Kai to postpone his wedding by a year, and he ended up having to share his special day with his cousin who was also getting married on the same day.

“Everyone understood,” Peter said, adding that many family members who were invited ended up splitting their time in between weddings.

Peter recounts how Moira’s mother, who in 2016 was in her late 70s, was always by her daughter’s side when she was in hospital.

“There was always someone next to her, however her mother had a special dedication,” Valentina says.

The woman used to religiously catch the 5am bus from Qormi to go to the hospital, where she was given special visitation hours, given Moira’s serious conditions. She would stay until 8pm or until the last visiting person left.

As Moira started to get better, she was moved from the ITU section to another ward.

From here she was given special permission to leave hospital to join her family during the day in order to start working on regaining her memory.

Given her age, the family was given a 50/50 chance whether she was going to make a full recovery of her brain function.

Thanks to a wheelchair-friendly vehicle, which was given temporarily to the family by a neighbour, the family could visit several places other than just staying at home, given that Moira at that time could not walk.

Valentina recounts how traumatic it was to take her mother back to the hospital in the evenings, as per agreement for the woman to keep her room.

“She used to cry a lot because she couldn’t understand why we were leaving her there,” she said.

“It was a scene out of the movies, something I wouldn’t wish not even on my worst enemy,” Peter says.

As days went by Moira started to partly regain her memory, and although the communication difficulties remained, she could be seen doing hand gestures as a sign of recognition. Her speech also gradually returned.

Apart from this kind of memory exercise, Moira also had to attend physical therapy and speech therapy sessions, with the latter one continuing to this day.

“It is a work in progress and there is still much to be done,” Peter says.

 

Life after hospital

Six-and-a-half years have passed since the accident. Now 57, Moira can perform basic tasks, like sweeping, hanging the clothes and doing a sandwich for herself, “but you have to give her instructions”, her husband explains.

As he was speaking, Moira removed a speck of wool from her husband’s blazer, as if to show affection.

“You cannot assign a time with a task,” Valentina adds as “she will forget it”.

Instead, tasks have to be started while the person is present.

Peter says that Moira can perform a list of tasks, “as long as they are started while I’m here”.

Apart from these tasks, Bank of Valletta, the bank where she held the position of head of bank loans, offered Moira another position, which is not so demanding.

“She used to make stickers for them and some coffees,” says Peter, adding that he has the utmost respect for the company after it showed so much care for his wife.

However, as soon as Covid-19 hit, the family made the decision to stop Moira from working as they could not cope with having to pick her up and drop her off with their busy schedule.

To keep her busy, the family started to send Moira frequently to the supermarket with a paper to show to the shopkeeper the stuff she needs.

“It took a total of three months, during Covid, to get her accustomed to the route,” Peter says, a clear indication how severely Moira’s short-term memory has been impacted.

Nowadays, thanks to her family’s patience and dedication, Moira has managed to regain some of her lost independence as she manages to walk to the nail saloon alone, which is situated just around the corner.

“People here know her and know where they have to call if they see her disoriented,” Peter says.

To protect her, Moira goes round with a backpack which has tags on it holding the family’s phone numbers and addresses.

Peter said that this kind of independence cannot be allowed when the family goes abroad as Moira’s new surroundings can cause problems for her.

“When we go abroad everything is different, the tabs are different, the hot and cold indication in the shower is different, thus she cannot be left alone.”

 

Courts sending the wrong message

Her family is not happy with the court judgment, delivered a few days ago.

“This kind of sentence does not serve justice,” Peter says in frustration.

Apart from the perpetrator having spent the previous seven years “as if nothing has happened, he walked out again as if nothing has ever happened”, Valentina says.

“By giving this sentence, the court is saying that anyone can do anything, and they will walk out of court with minor consequences,” Peter adds.

He says that although the magistrate sentenced the driver to the maximum she could give, the laws should change in order to allow harsher punishments in such circumstances.

During the court proceedings an eyewitness described how Aquilina was driving at considerable speed when he hit Moira.

Magistrate Yana Micallef Stafrace convicted Aquilina of causing grievous injuries to the victim, with dangerous and reckless driving, at 110km/hr in a built-up area and handed down a suspended sentence.

She said his age, the driver was 20 at the time, had been a mitigating factor. The man was given a one-year prison sentence suspended for four years, his driving licence was suspended for three years and he was given a €1,200 fine, plus court expenses.

Peter strongly disagrees that the court took into consideration the man’s age and says that since he was of age to drive and was of sound mind, his age should not have played a role in the decision making.

“He was of age to drive and was of sound mind, hence it should have not been taken into consideration,” says Valentina, agreeing with her father.

“If such an importance was being placed on age, then we should start giving out licences at 30 years of age,” she adds in frustration.

Apart from the court judgement, the family was denied video surveillance footage from both restaurants and street camera owners, with the majority saying that “they weren’t working”.

“Most probably they didn’t want to have to go to court,” Peter says, explaining that people don’t like to have to go to court repeatedly for nothing, given that when an important witness or the accused himself are absent the court sitting is adjourned.

Peter says that this was also a reason why the court case took seven years to be decided.

However, there are not going to be any civil lawsuits, as the family was approached by Aquilina’s insurance provider and they reached an out of court cash settlement.

Peter says that this happened before the Covid-19 pandemic, “which is quite ironic given that the insurance company was so sure that it was ‘a clear case’ years before the criminal judgement itself”.

However, it does not reflect any of the damages Moira has suffered, as the only equation applied to calculate the sum in “damages” is the amount in wages the woman would have earned from the age she was ran over (50 years old) to the retirement age of 65 years old.

“We did not even get an apology from the driver,” Peter and Valentina say.