A 68-year-old former nurse in India, who had spent the past 42 years of her life in a vegetative state, died from a fatal heart attack on Monday morning.
Aruna Ramchandra Shanbaug spent most of her life in a coma in Mumbai's King Edward Memorial (KEM) hospital after she was violently raped while working as a staff nurse for the medical facility. The brutal attack left Shanbaug in a vegetative state.
Shanbaug's story and condition turned her into one of the key figures in debates over euthanasia in India.
Officials of the KEM hospital said Shanbaug's remains will be kept in the facility in order for staff to pay their last respects.
"She was recovering and all her other medical parameters were fine. Today she suffered a sudden attack and could not be saved," Dr. Ahmad Pazare, head of medicine at the KEM hospital, said.
Smita Nayak, Shanbaug's niece, said she will claim her aunt's body so that her son can perform the last rites.
Nayak told the local media that they had tried to visit Shanbaug 15 years ago, but the KEM hospital did not allow them.
Shanbaug had moved to Mumbai from her hometown of Karnataka in the 1970s in order to begin her work as a junior nurse for the KEM hospital. In 1973, she was sexually attacked by a ward boy named Sohanlal Bhartia Valmiki who worked at the hospital.
Valmiki also tried to choke Shanbaug to death using a dog chain, cutting off the oxygen to her brain and leaving her in a coma.
While Valmiki was eventually arrested and convicted, it was for robbery and assault and not for the brutal sexual assault on Shanbaug.
In March 2011, India's Supreme Court denied a petition by journalist Pinki Virani who used Shanbaug's condition to gain permission for a "mercy killing." Virani's petition was blocked by the doctors and nurses at the KEM hospital who had taken care of Shanbaug since the day she was sexually attacked.
Despite rejecting what it considers as active euthanasia, the Supreme Court has allowed a "passive euthanasia," wherein patients suffering from a permanently vegetative state (PVS) could be taken off life support.
"Aruna got justice after all these painful years," Virani said. "She has found release and peace."
"While going, Aruna gave India the landmark passive euthanasia law."
Photo: Peter Savich | Flickr
