After rape and 42 years of coma, Mumbai nurse loses battle of wills

Shiv Kumar

Advertisement

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, May 18

Aruna Shanbaug, a nurse who was raped and gagged with a dog chain that left her in a coma for 42 years and made her the face of a debate on euthanasia in India, died today. She was 66.

Dr Pravin Bangar, Medical Superintendent of Mumbai’s King Edwards Memorial (KEM) Hospital said Shanbaug had suffered a serious bout of pneumonia last week and was on ventilator. “She was still in the ICU when she breathed her last at 8.40am,” he said.

Shanbaug was assaulted by ward boy Sohanlal Bhartha Walmiki when she was on duty on November 27, 1973. Then aged 24, Shanbaug was a junior nurse at KEM hospital when Walmiki — whom she had scolded for stealing food that was meant for stray animals adopted by the hospital — attacked her.

She had just finished her shift and was in the basement of the hospital changing before leaving for home. Walmiki, lying in wait, sodomised her and then strangled her with a dog chain, cutting oxygen supply to her brain. She was discovered in the basement 11 hours later, blind and suffering from a severe brain stem injury. Walmiki was caught and convicted, and served two concurrent seven-year sentences for assault and robbery, but neither for rape nor sexual molestation, nor for the alleged offence of “unnatural sex”.

Shanbaug, who was ever since confined to a hospital bed, occupied a room attached to ward No. 4 on the ground floor of KEM Hospital and the hearts of the staff and nurses there who foiled an attempt by the city’s municipal body to evict her in the 1980s.

As the KEM nurses toiled to keep her alive, journalist Pinki Virani, who wrote the book “Aruna’s Story”, moved the Supreme Court with a euthanasia plea to rid Shanbaug of unremitting agony. She became a subject of euthanasia in the country after Virani filed a mercy killing petition on her behalf. The Supreme Court, which heard the petition, turned down the plea for euthanasia in 2011. However, it allowed “passive euthanasia” of withdrawing life support to patients in permanently vegetative state (PVS). It rejected outright active euthanasia of ending life through administration of lethal substances.

Reacting to the news of her death, Virani said: “Aruna got justice after all these painful years. She has found release and peace. While going, Aruna gave India the landmark passive euthanasia law.”

Shanbaug’s relatives had stopped visiting her some years after the incident. Her only sister also passed away some years ago.

Maharashtra Governor Vidyasagar Rao expressed grief over Shanbaug’s death. “The news of the demise of Aruna Shanbaug is extremely painful. One feels as if one has lost a family member. The incident of the brutal attack on Aruna that forced her to live in a vegetative state for all these years was heart wrenching for the entire society. May her soul rest in eternal peace,” the Governor said.

 (With agency inputs)

In her passing lies a grim reminder... 

Aruna Shanbaug’s demise is extremely painful. One feels as if one has lost a family member. The attack that forced her to live in a vegetative state for all these years was heart wrenching . May her soul rest in peace — C Vidyasagar Rao, M’rashtra Governor

My deepest condolences on the sad demise of Aruna Shanbaug. It was painful to see her suffering. I salute the humanity shown by nurses of Mumbai's King Edwards Memorial Hospital — Devendra Fadnavis, M’rashtra CM

Aruna dreamt of nursing but had to spend her entire life on a hospital bed. It was cruel fate but she fought fate with determination. With her death, the struggle has ended — Ashok Chavan, M’rashtra Cong chief

Sense of compassion imbued them as they saw her from a distance

Mumbai, May 18

The makers of “Katha Arunachi”, a Marathi play based on the tragic journey of former King Edwards Memorial (KEM) Hospital nurse Aruna Shanbaug, today recounted how a sense of compassion imbued them even as they were allowed to see her only from a distance while preparing to stage her story in 2002.

Vaijayanti Apte, wife of late Vinay Apte, who directed the play, remembered the interaction with doctors and nurses of KEM hospital. “We were not allowed to meet Aruna but were asked to see her from a distance. A sense of compassion and sadness arose after seeing her,” Apte said.

“The play was written by Dattakumar Desai, and Vinayji thought that the story of an upright, gritty young nurse whose life takes a sad turn made a good subject. But we took care to ensure that the dramatised version of the real-life incident did not in any way cast aspersions on the victim as she was a living person,” Apte, a former journalist, said. She said her husband who directed and produced the play had invited the KEM staff to witness the rehearsals.

“Only after their clearance, we were ready to stage the play in 2002,” she said. Chinmayee Sumeet played Aruna, while Abhay Rane played ward boy Sohanlal Bhartha Walmiki. “The shows went on for nearly two years. Marathi audiences go to see plays for entertainment and recreation. Despite the good reviews, the feedback we got was that the audience went back with a sad feeling. So we did not carry on,” she said.

“For 42 years, Aruna was denied the experience of enjoying life. It is sad that her youth was cut short so cruelly and she did not get justice till the end,” Apte said. 

Fellow nurses bid her adieu

Aruna Shanbaug, the former nurse who died after lying in coma for 42 years following a brutal sexual assault at a Mumbai hospital, was laid to rest on Monday evening with hundreds, including nursing fraternity, bidding a tearful adieu.

The nurses of the KEM hospital at Parel here, who took care of her for long, were keen to perform the last rites of Shanbaug instead of her kin.

However, a compromise was struck by which the nurses, other hospital staff and kin of Shanbaug jointly performed the last rites. KEM hospital dean and Shanbaug’s nephew together lit the funeral pyre at the Bhoiwada crematorium. 

Before the last rites were performed, her body was kept for public viewing at the hospital. Rural Development Minister Pankaja Munde visited the hospital and paid tribute to Shanbaug. — PTI