A mother of four children who was beaten and strangled so badly by her ex-husband that she was left paralysed and unable to leave her bed has died two years later from a heart attack in hospital.

The mum-of-four Cidneia ‘Neia’ Aparecida Mariano da Costa, 35, was beaten and asphyxiated by her ex-husband Emerson Henrique de Souza on a rural road in the Brazilian municipality of Londrina on 8th April 2019.

The mother of four who worked as a nursing assistant prior to the attack died of cardiac arrest in a hospital in the municipality of Londrina last Sunday (30th May).

Neia was left paralysed by the attack, unable to speak or walk, as a lack of oxygen to her brain caused her to suffer hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.

The investigation that followed found that Neia suffered a haematoma of the cervical spine from the attack and that her current condition was the direct result of suffocation.

Following the brutal attack, her almost lifeless body was found in a thicket by a passerby who called the emergency services.

She had spent two years bed-ridden ever since, only communicating using her eyes and facial expressions.

Neia’s ex-husband was sentenced to 23 years and 10 months in prison for attempted femicide on February 4th this year (2021).

Shirlei Aparecida Mariano Pereira, the victim’s sister, told local news outlet Globo that: “Ever since the attack our family has been suffering a great pain.”

She added: “She fought every day to survive, the whole family did everything they could to keep her here. Her death has come as a shock and hurt us greatly.”

The 35-year-old was buried in the city of Nossa Senhora das Gracas and she leaves behind four children aged 19, 14, 8 and 6 years old.