Delhi gang-rape victim dies in Singapore hospital

By Sayed Jawad - 29 Dec 2012, 9:55 am

An Indian woman whose gang-rape aboard a bus in New Delhi spawned mass protests has died, according to a doctor who was treating her at a Singapore hospital.

The chief executive of the Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore, where she was flown for specialist treatment on Thursday, said she had suffered severe organ failure.

Kelvin Loh added: “Her family and officials from the High Commission of India were by her side. The Mount Elizabeth team of doctors, nurses and staff join her family in mourning her loss.

The woman, whose intestines were removed because of injuries caused by a metal rod used during the rape, has not been identified. She was flown to Singapore on Wednesday night after undergoing three abdominal operations at a local hospital. She had also suffered a major brain injury, cardiac arrest and infections of the lungs and abdomen. “She was courageous in fighting for her life for so long against the odds, but the trauma to her body was too severe for her to overcome,” Dr. Loh’s statement said.

The death of a 23-year-old woman who came to symbolize the horrible treatment women face daily in India after she was raped by several men on a moving bus prompted sorrow and rage in India on Saturday morning.

The death spurred an outpouring of sadness in social media, as well as calls for action to ensure her rapists are punished and that Indian society changes so that more women aren’t assaulted, harassed and otherwise mistreated because of their gender.

India, which has more than 1.3 billion people, recorded 24,000 cases of rape last year, a figure that has increased by 25 percent in the past six years. On Thursday, Delhi government officials said they would register the names and photographs of convicted rapists on the Delhi police Web site, the beginning of a national registry for rapists.

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