Aruna Shanbaug (67), former nurse of Mumbai's Kings Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital who was in a coma for 42 years after a sexual assault by a wardboy in 1973, was declared dead on Monday morning.
Shanbaug was diagnosed with pneumonia last week and was put on ventilator support. On Sunday, doctors said her condition had improved slightly but she continued to remain on life support.
Shanbaug was being taken care off by a group of KEM hospital nurses and doctors for the last four decades. Hospital authorities have appealed to Shanbaug's family members to step forward to claim her remains for last rites.
On November 27, 1973, Shanbaug who then worked as a junior nurse at the Kings Edward Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, was brutally assaulted and raped by a wardboy-cum-sweeper of the hospital, Sohanlal Bharta Valmiki, after throttling her with a dog chain. The brutal assault cut off blood and oxygen supply to key parts of her brain. Ms. Shanbaug had been in a vegetative state since and confined to a bed at the KEM hospital where nurses and the hospital staff take care of her.
"The demise of Aruna Shanbaug is a jolt for any sensitive mind. It is ironical and a cruel turn of fate that someone who dreamed of dedicating her life to medical care as a nurse should remain bed-ridden. She continue to fight Destiny bravely and her struggle will remain immortal," State Congress Chief and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan said in a condolence message.
Euthanasia plea
Shanbaug's case had triggered a national debate on mercy killing. In 2011, the Supreme Court responded to a plea for euthanasia filed by journalist Pinki Virani but turned down the mercy killing petition. In her petition, Ms. Virani, who penned the book Aruna's Story, had urged the court to grant euthanasia arguing that the former nurse was "virtually a dead person."
42 years in vegetative state. wud it have been better to let her die?
Anupamaa
5