Guido Nasi
Guido Nasi, the Italian man who was left paralysed as a teenager after an unprovoked attack in Dublin, died this morning after suffering a cardiac arrest.
He was just 17 when he found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time during his first-ever trip to Ireland back in 1999.
The Turin native, who had never been abroad before, was mindlessly struck over the head with a bottle in Dublin’s Fairview Park and never recovered from his injuries.
However, despite being paralysed from the neck down and requiring round-the-clock care, Mr Nasi maintained a deep affection for Ireland, and even dreamed of moving over here permanently.
Guido Nasi
Today’s News in 90 Seconds, Wednesday, January 7
In 2019, he returned to Ireland on a visit and was given a special reception by then president Michael D Higgins at Áras an Úachtaráin.
But since then the wheelchair-bound 43-year-old’s health rapidly deteriorated and along with his physical complications, he battled severe depression.
In November last year he was hospitalised after suffering a cardiac arrest and he had remained in hospital up to his death yesterday following a second cardiac arrest.
Bernadette Kelly, a former victim support worker and long-time friend of the Nasi family, said: “I’m so sorry to learn of Guido’s passing. He had a terrible life after he was attacked in Dublin. His injuries were horrific, and he suffered badly with his mental health.
“He lost his mother a few years ago, and didn’t have any family members left to support him, so he was being looked after in a nursing home in Turin.
“It’s amazing, though, that he never lost his love for Ireland. He dreamed of moving over here to live and that was what kept him going. And the Irish public were always very supportive to him, always sending him birthday cards and Christmas cards.”
In 2001 James Osbourne, then aged 31, from East Wall in Dublin, was jailed for eight-and-a-half years for the life-changing assault on Mr Nasi. He was released in 2008.