Symbol of women victims of sexual violence in India dies after remaining in coma for 42 years
Xinhua, May 18, 2015 Adjust font size:
The world's oldest comatose patient and a symbol of women victims to sexual violence in India Aruna Shanbaug who had been in a vegetative state ever since she was raped and brutally beaten, died in Mumbai Monday morning, said doctors.
She died in the city's KEM Hospital after remaining in coma for almost 42 years, Dean Avinash Supe said.
Shanbaug suffered from pneumonia and related ailments before she died.
She had been abandoned by all relatives or close associates and was taken care of by nurses who look upon her as an idol.
Shanbaug was brutally raped by a contract sweeper in the same hospital on Nov. 27, 1973. The assailant choked her with a dog leash that snapped oxygen supply to her brain, resulting in severe injuries to the brain stem and cervical chord that left her in a vegetative state since then.
The rapist was subsequently arrested and convicted to serve two concurrent seven years' sentences. He was later set free and is believed to be settled in Delhi since. Endi