Did govt dupe Indians by sending Delhi victim to Singapore?

New Delhi, Jan 8: Days after the infamous Delhi gangrape victim's demise, controversies continue to haunt the Government of India over its decision of sending the girl to Singapore for better treatment.

The girl was admitted to Safdarjung Hospital in the national capital on Dec 16 and had battled for her life in the ICU for ten days. On the wee hours of Dec 26, she along with her family members was taken to Singapore in a very hush-hush manner and admitted to Mount Elizabeth Hospital.

Supporting the decision of airlifting the victim to Singapore, Harish Rawat was quoted as saying, "The idea was to give her the best possible treatment. I don't think the idea was to run away from the problem. Death here or death abroad would still have the same impact."

"We felt if there was a chance to save her, it should be tried. Take her to a transplant facility abroad," added Mr Rawat, a government minister who attended a cabinet meeting on the girl's health condition and the efforts to save her.

However, countering Mr Rawat's statement, many doctors on the condition of anonymity said that the girl was not at the condition of bearing trouble of any operation as she was unconscious since a heart attack the previous night.

Chief of surgical gastroenterology and organ transplantation at the Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi, Samiran Nundy, was quoted as saying, "One cannot think about intestinal transplant at this moment. First, the infection spreading in her should be stopped, then one can think about transplant."

Meanwhile, NDTV quoted a doctor from AIIMS saying, "It was ethically and morally wrong to have taken her out, given that she was sinking and her chances of survival were next to zero at that stage."

"Such a thing raises false hopes in the minds of the family, the community. No doctor in his right mind would do this, unless you want to get the patient off your back," said another doctor.

Citing the criticism and counter criticism, here raised few questions - Why did the government take her to Singapore while she was getting "the best" treatment at Safdarjung Hospital? Did the government compel doctors to acknowledging their decision in order to put an end to protests which were carried at several parts of the country, especially in Delhi?

The 23-year-old paramedical student was assaulted by six men and later was thrown out of a moving bus on Dec 16. She had gone through several surgeries and her damaged intestine was removed during one of such operations.

She passed away at the Singapore hospital on Dec 29. During an interview with the TV channel, her brother said, "We went inside and stayed with her the whole night. We saw her heart beat slowing down on the machine. It kept dropping and then dropped to zero. The time was 4:05 am."

OneIndia News