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A woman who moved to Ireland to start a new life said her "dreams are shattered" after a scrambler motorbike left her husband with devastating injuries when it fell on him as the couple sunbathed in a park in Dublin.
Anzhela Kotsinian (43) had moved to Dublin weeks before the incident in Darndale Park, in north Dublin, on Saturday, June 9th.
The former teacher had been enjoying the warm weather, sunbathing with her roofer husband, Ilabek Avetian (39) when a scrambler motorbike was driven over the brow of a hill before landing on the couple.
Mr Avetian lost his left eye, suffered multiple facial fractures, including a fracture of the forehead bones.
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His nasal bones were also fractured as was his jaw bone and he suffered a severe brain injury and haemorrhage.
Doctors said he had suffered “severe traumatic brain injury” causing “severe neurological deficit.”
He has been in a vegetative state in Beaumont Hospital, Dublin ever since the incident. Ms Kotsinian said her "world has fallen apart."
“No one is answering for this. How can this happen,” Ms Kotsinian asked?
"We came to Ireland, from Lithuania, to begin a new life. We wanted to have a child, to buy a home in Ireland. We were discussing our plans that day."
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The couple had been undergoing IVF in Armenia but Ms Kotsinian said husband's injuries mean their hopes of starting a family are receding.
Warm, sunny day
“We decided to lie down in the park, as it was a warm, sunny day but after lying down for 10 minutes, the motorbike ran over us.
“I didn’t understand what had happened. I suddenly heard a motorbike and then it ran over us and over my pelvis.
“I immediately thought of my husband. He had his head on my legs and I couldn’t hear a sound from him.
“I was in so much shock, I can’t’ describe it in words, I just cried and shouted ‘help help help’.”
“The motorbike had run over my husband and crushed his face. Some workers nearby came to help us and we were taken to hospital.”
In June, gardaí said a 16-year-old boy was helping them with their enquiries but three months no arrests have been made. A Garda spokesman said investigations were ongoing.
Ms Kotsinian suffered a fractured pelvis in the incident and visits her husband twice a day in hospital.
‘I’m like a zombie’
“I can’t sleep, eat, or live, I’m like a zombie - I can’t do my makeup, wear a dress because it isn’t important anymore and no one is answering for this.
“I feel very, very alone. I think of the hurt that has happened to us in Ireland. I feel no one has helped me since my husband was hurt.
“I can’t work here to support myself. I don’t have papers to work, I was also injured and I have to come to see my husband in hospital every day.
She said it was hard to see her husband so damaged. “My husband had so much energy. He loved to dance. We love socialising, music. We were so happy.”
“But now every time I see him, he gets worse and worse. I can’t see how this story will have a good end. The doctors can’t help him improve.”
Ms Kotsinian said the medical team at Beaumont is considering transferring her husband to Lithuania where his father lives but said she would prefer to remain here as “I have no home there.”
"We haven't a home in Lithuania or Russia either, where I have citizenship. We have no home in Ireland," she said.
Ms Kotsinian’s mother, Hasmik Kotsinian (64) is in Dublin at the moment to support her daughter but will will have to leave by September 20th.
‘I need help’
“She doesn’t have a visa to stay and I just don’t know how I can be on my own, without my mother, or anyone - I don’t know anyone. I need help,” Ms Kotsinian said.
Ms Kotsinian said all she had left of her husband was his wedding ring but said even this had been damaged and was now misshapen following the collision.
“Who will return my husband, my family, my psychological peace?” she said. “When I was given his wedding ring, my whole world was turned inside out.”
Her family and her husband’s family are supporting her financially while she recovers and spends time with her husband and she said she receives no State assistance and she admits the cost of living in Dublin is becoming a problem.
Ms Kotsinian said there is no law prohibiting the use of scrambler bikes in a public park and she wants to see this made illegal. Someone doing so could be charged with dangerous driving.
A spokesman for Department of Justice said it was reviewing the “appropriate criminal justice legislation to ensure that gardaí have the necessary powers at their disposal to deal with the misuse of scramblers and quad bikes.”
"With regard to the misuse of scramblers and quad bikes in public parks, it should be noted that many local authorities, including Dublin City Council, have made bye-laws which prohibit the use of these vehicles in public parks under their jurisdiction.
A Go Fund Me page has been set up to help to assist the couple.