The widow of a doctor who allegedly died after falling off a bed in hospital, where he was recovering following a previous fall at home, wants the attorney general to give her a copy of the magisterial inquiry’s conclusions because she wants answers.

It has been four months since Mario Rizzo Naudi, a renowned family doctor from Għaxaq, died at the age of 70, in what his wife, Doriette, believes are circumstances “full of mysteries”.

The family has not been given access to the conclusions of the magisterial inquiry which they are told has been completed.

“I want these questions to be answered. I want to know what happened to my husband… What I have right now is all suppositions. But why should I be relying on suppositions? Why shouldn’t we know what the autopsy concluded? I don’t know. Not knowing is infernal,” she said.

“It has taken me a while to speak up because me and my sons do not want Mario’s death to be politicised.”

Mario Rizzo Naudi was a former Nationalist Party electoral candidate.

Sitting in their living room, surrounded by photos of her husband, their two sons and four grandchildren, Doriette said something strange happened when the first incident happened on March 25.

“It was a Saturday. He was in the clinic, which is part of the house, and it was at about 11am when I went to tell him I was going out with my mother. To go from the house to the clinic, there are two doors. That morning, the first door was locked. For as long as we lived in this house, it was never locked. In fact, I forgot it had a lock. I knocked. He came out and I told him I was leaving. Then I heard him lock again. Looking back, it was very strange,” she says.

Doriette Rizzo Naudi and her late husband Mario.

Horror in the garage

That morning, Doriette went out to run some errands with her elderly mother, who lives with her. They returned at around 1pm.

“I used the remote control and the garage door came up. I was about to reverse in when I saw this horrific sight: a river of blood in the middle of the garage floor. His specs were on one side and his watch on the other, and a ladder was lying on the ground. For some strange reason, the ladder was the one he always told us not to use. The safer one was in the garage…. He must have been trying to get something from the garage rafters. I later noticed that on the inside of the garage door, there were bloody handprints,” she said.

Doriette Rizzo Naudi in the garage where her husband fell. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

She walked through the garage that leads to the garden, then into the living room.

“I found him seated in an armchair, semi-conscious and incoherent. His body was limp like a rag doll. The armchair was unsightly. His clothes were coated in blood. Strangely, there was not a single drop of blood between the garage and the armchair,” she said.

She called 112 and he was rushed to hospital where doctors explained to her that he sustained two fractures to the lower left side of his head and had some internal bleeding. Neither of them needed surgical intervention as the bleeding had to be monitored and the fractures could fuse naturally if he was immobilised. The bleeding occurred from the nose, mouth and ears following the fall.

I saw this horrific sight: a river of blood in the middle of the garage floor

He was taken to the neurosurgical ward where he had one-on-one attention. He was unconscious most of the time.

Doriette and her two sons started asking questions: How come there was no blood between the garage and the living room? How did he get there once he was so weak? Was someone with him?

Missing-person report and another fall

Then, on Monday, another strange thing happened.

At around 10pm, while her husband was in hospital, Doriette received a call from the Żejtun police station. When she went there, she was told someone filed a missing-person report about her husband. Police would not tell her who and family members confirmed they did not file it. She thought it was odd since, following the fall, she placed a note on the clinic door informing people that the clinic would be closed indefinitely.

The following Thursday, the family were told Mario would be discharged.

“We were aghast – he was still suffering fits following the accident.

Mario Rizzo Naudi, a renowned family doctor, died at the age of 70.

Still, the family tried to extract answers from him: “It was a recurring theme whenever he was conscious. Unfortunately, he simply couldn’t remember, and eventually he assumed he was involved in a car accident and wanted to know if I was in the car with him, and if I had survived.”

The next day, a Friday, the family felt his condition was worrying and they took him back to hospital. The two sons stayed with him until just after midnight, this time in the Medical Ward.

“He was fully conscious, and he told them to go to their families and sleep. They called me to tell me he was OK. Two hours later, at 2.20am, my landline rang, and I was told to hurry to go to hospital. They would not divulge more information on the phone,” she said.

Doriette rushed to hospital and waited for someone to tell her what was going on.

“The first inkling I got was from a nursing aide who got me a glass of water and as she rubbed my back, assuming I knew what had happened, told me he fell off the bed and they didn’t know how long he was on the floor and, by the time they found him, he was in dire straits. Then I saw a stretcher and I ran to his side. It was the most horrific sight of my life. What I saw was inhuman,” she said.

Doriette thinks her husband must have been trying to get something from the garage rafters. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Doriette and her sons waited as her husband was operated upon. “I remember it was Friday, the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows,” she says.

She was told her husband had cranial injuries and internal bleeding. The surgery was intended to address the bleeding and there was a hairline chance he may be saved with surgery. But he died on the operating table after suffering a cardiac arrest.

It was April 1, two days before they were to celebrate their 41st wedding anniversary.

Police and a magisterial inquiry

The magisterial inquiry started, and the family was not allowed to bury him pending an autopsy.

“We didn’t want him to be further butchered,” she said.

I’m swimming in waters far too deep for me

“While we were going through all this, there was the humiliation of police trooping in and out of the house as though we committed a crime. His phone and my phone were taken as well as footage from the security cameras.”

The security camera footage showed Mario walk out of the clinic and into the house and to the bathroom around midday, while Doriette was out with her mother running errands.

Mario Rizzo Naudi died on April 1, two days before their 41st wedding anniversary.

He then walked into the kitchen, adjacent to the living room, to make a sandwich. 

“Something must have interrupted his sandwich-making. But what?”

During this period of time, the family asked even more questions: Why did he stop halfway to go to the garage? Why did he use the ladder he always warned us not to use? What did he want from rafters packed with old unused stuff? Who reported him missing and why?

How does a man as limp as a ragdoll walk from the garage to the living room, up four stairs, unaided?

How come there was a pool of blood in the garage, this armchair was unsightly, his clothes coated, and not a drop of blood in between? Was he unattended in the medical ward? Why did two towels go missing?

The family hope the magisterial inquiry would answer these questions since there were no witnesses, other than their family dog.

Through their lawyer, they learned that the inquiry has been concluded and asked for a copy of the conclusions. But the magistrate turned down their request, Doriette said.

No one knows what Rizzo Naudi was searching for in the rafters. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Three weeks ago, they appealed to the attorney general to get a copy but have heard nothing so far, forcing Doriette to also write to the Office of the Prime Minister and to the president. OPM said they were looking into the matter.

“I want these questions to be answered... I have a right to know. This is my reality, whether it’s bad or good? To be left in limbo like this, in the dark, sitting on the armchair brooding all the time. I lost 50 kilos for no reason except for stress. Put me out of this misery – have a heart. I thought laws were there to protect people and not abuse them,” she said.

“I’ve always been a law-abiding citizen. I never even got a parking infringement and suddenly I’m dealing with police and missing-person reports and inquiries.

“I’m swimming in waters far too deep for me.  At least let me have some answers.”

Questions were sent to the Justice Ministry and the Health Ministry.

A Justice Ministry spokesperson said: “The ministry has embarked on an exercise to analyse the existing legislative framework regulating magisterial enquiries to propose and introduce new rights for victims.

“Anyone who would like to request an inquiry can do so by submitting a formal request to the AG’s office.”