An Unnerving and Poignant Incident

A gentle small town girl aged 23 from northern parts of Karnataka set out to Mumbai with dream in her eyes. She wanted to become a nurse. She qualified as a nurse practitioner. She was appointed in King Edward Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, as a staff nurse.

She was extremely dedicated and virtuous at work. She gave the rough side of her tongue to subordinates who failed her expectations. Her efficiency was sure to take her up the career ladder.

This beauty with the brain fell in love with a young and energetic doctor of the same hospital. They spoke to their respective parents, convinced them and got the marriage date fixed.

One uneventful late evening, she went to the dog research lab which was used as the dressing room by nurses of that hospital. She was about to close the door behind, she was strangled with a dog chain from behind. She fell unconscious. She was looted physically, mentally and monetarily.

The rapist cum robber left her in the room presuming her death. She laid unattended till the early hours of next morning. She was rushed to the ICU. She had lost her vision due to cortical blindness, lost her neuromuscular functions, her memory! Basically she was brain dead. The asphyxiating had halted oxygen supply to the brain.

Does this story ring a bell? Yes. The story is about the unfortunate Aruna Shanbaug. She was brought to this condition by a ward-boy named Sohanlal Bhartha Walmiki. He was her subordinate who was rebuked for his deeds. Indignant Sohanlal took up this course to settle the scores of vengeance.

Now, she lies in the dark room, on the old iron bed of the hospital. She has not seen light for more than three decades. Her colleagues are looking after her at KEM hospital. She has been locked-up in the room where only doctors who treat her and nurses who feed her and bathe her are allowed. This lock-up is after second attack of Sohanlal in the hospital after he served 7 years of jail.

Sohanlal, led a happy life working in another private hospital after serving 7 years of seven concurrent years of sentence for assault and robbery.

The whole incident and aftermaths are very disturbing. If Sohanlal was allowed to walk free in this world after just seven years in jail, doesn't his savaged victim have the right to be set free after 36 years of an internment?

This post is in the light of the judgment of the Supreme Court on passive Euthanasia.

“In a path-breaking judgement, the Supreme Court today allowed "passive euthanasia" of withdrawing life support to patients in permanently vegetative state (PVS) but rejected outright active euthanasia of ending life through administration of lethal substances.”

                                                                                                -------TOI