Desperate for some peace and quiet

A 26-year-old renal patient, who had to stand five years of incessant drumming from his teenage neighbour, is thankful the unbearable noise has finally been stopped by the courts.

“I have nothing against the boy and, if he has talent, he certainly should practise and do his best to succeed... but certainly not at the cost of people who try to survive,” Renè Azzopardi said, a few days after returning to his Rabat home from hospital following another operation.

He explained that, due to his condition, he had to remain home most of the time because he had to undergo four daily dialysis sessions of about 30 minutes each.

Last week, Mr Azzopardi’s 17-year-old neighbour, Kristian Schembri, was fined €50 and stopped from drumming in the basement of his home after a magistrate ruled he was annoying neighbours.

A court expert found that the sound in the Azzopardis’ house reached over 40 decibels, which he deemed “excessive”, during drumming sessions.

When the story was published on timesofmalta.com, some readers criticised the Azzopardi family for complaining and for not allowing Mr Schembri to pursue his passion.

“Many mentioned that it is better for the boy to play music, instead of taking drugs. Well, true, but all my family had been taking drugs because of headaches caused by the extreme sounds and I wish that, someday, I won’t need to take drugs in order to survive...

“On reading that my family complained because the drumming was annoying me, a sick boy, someone questioned whether I’ll ever get better. No I won’t,” the young man said matter of factly as he sat at his kitchen table with his crutches by his side.

His parents, Marian and Kristinu Azzopardi, explained how the drumming started about five years ago and they only took the matter to court two years ago. “We had to go to court because we wanted some peace and quiet at home and not because we wanted to cause any problems for our neighbour,” they said.

Mr Azzopardi’s father explained that he usually woke up at 2 a.m. to go to his farm and feed the animals. When he returned home, exhausted, he did not manage to rest because of the racket. But, more than anything, he and his wife were concerned about the well-being of their son who had no choice but to stay at home.

Mr Azzopardi was diagnosed as suffering from renal problems when he was five. Some time before, his nine-year-old brother, Paul, died in a tragic accident when he was crushed by a swinging gate on his father’s farm. Apart from facing the death of a son, his mother donated a kidney to her other child.

“After about 12 years doing pretty well with my mum’s kidney, I started contracting frequent diseases, which could easily have killed me... I had to go on CAPD (continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis) because my mother’s kidney stopped functioning,” he recalled.

Mr Azzopardi got an infection that forced him to stay hooked up to a machine for six months and is now back on home dialysis.

“Besides all this, the same renal problem faced me with other side effects relating to bones, especially my knees. I have just been discharged from my last operation, having undergone a similar operation about 12 months ago...

“Till now I have had eight operations, including three major ones. Without any doubt, I must go through other operations throughout my life, including another kidney transplant.

“If all this is not reason enough for a drummer boy to be legally stopped from disturbing his neighbours, I don’t know what is,” he said, adding that when his health allowed him to he worked with his father and he too paid taxes.