Nightmare ... Marion Hedges after the shopping trolley attack. Picture: NBC News

“This has destroyed our lives in every possible way,” her husband, Michael Hedges, told The New York Post, saying they’ve been forced to live off loans and what little work he can scrounge because of the constant care Marion needs.

The New York City mum still suffers from memory loss, double vision and impaired motor skills, and had to be retaught such mundane things as how to “fry an egg, write things in a calendar or use a phone.”

“I’m struggling, and I’m embarrassed,” Mrs Hedges told The Post.

The former real estate agent and charity volunteer was buying Halloween candy for needy kids when she was struck on the head by a Target cart tossed from the fourth-floor level at the East River Plaza Mall.

Unawares ... Marion Hedges before the shopping trolley attack. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

She and her husband sued the mall, Planned Security Services, Bob’s Discount Furniture, developer Forest City Ratner and Target, among others.

At one particularly low point, the couple’s two children — Dayton, 17, and Elizabeth, 18 — had to move in with their grandmother.

“It’s absolutely wrong that companies can use legal manoeuvres to avoid demonstrating whether or not they’re providing safety,” Michael Hedges said.

“We were willing to mediate, and [the companies] kicked the can down the road another four months — did nothing. It’s cruel and unusual, because there are treatments that I cannot afford for my wife.”

Mrs Hedges went from being “superwoman’’ to needing around-the-clock care, Mr Hedges, 53, lamented.

The two kids who tossed the cart — Jeovanni Rosario, then 13, and Raymond Hernandez, 12 — pleaded guilty in 2012 to assault. Rosario was sentenced to six to 18 months in a facility in Westchester, and Hernandez to six to 16 months in a therapeutic group home.

To this day, Mrs Hedges maintains compassion for her assailants.

“Those poor children who threw the cart were at a shopping mall because they had no place to go,” she said.

A spokeswoman for Target said, “This was a terribly tragic incident,” but declined further comment, citing the pending case.

James Burke, Forest City Ratner’s lawyer, declined to comment.

A spokesman for the mall owner, Blumenfeld Development Group, said, “It’s unfortunate that they characterise it as justice delayed, but it’s in the court, so we’re not going to be able to comment.”

Reps for Bob’s Discount Furniture — which was providing free candy at the site — and Planned Security Services did not return messages.