RIP Nirbhaya, We Won’t Until India Is A Safer Place For Women End Comes At 2.15am From Cerebral Edema, Cremation Today

RIP Nirbhaya, We Won’t Until India Is A Safer Place For Women

End Comes At 2.15am From Cerebral Edema, Cremation Today

Kounteya Sinha TNN

New Delhi: In one of her conscious spells, Nirbhaya had told her mother even as she waged a grim battle with death in Safdarjung Hospital, “Save me… I want to live.” This was three days after her brutal gang-rape. Surgeries had already been carried out on her and her badly infected intestines had been removed. Chances of her survival were, therefore, slim. Still, two things were going for her – her boundless courage and the will to live. And, of course, the prayers of a billion Indians. At the end of 13 agonizing days, all this proved to be inadequate. At 2.15am on Saturday, Nirbhaya breathed her last.
    Her father and mother were by her side at Singapore’s Mount Elizabeth hospital since 6.30pm on Friday when the doctors had virtually given up hope. The cardiac arrest she had on Tuesday night was beginning to unravel with life-snuffing consequences. Fluid was accumulating in her brain, already badly damaged by the cardiac arrest which had choked off blood supply to the brain for over three minutes. In medical terms it is called cerebral edema. In plain language, it spelled the end of Nirbhaya’s short but heroic life. Her story, though, is certain to live for much longer.
    Mourning gripped the entire country on Saturday morning. As news of Nirbhaya’s death filtered out on the wintry morning, thousands poured out on the streets in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, even in smaller towns like Jaunpur, Meerut and Bulandshahr, to express their anguish. There was a genuine sense of loss – as though people had lost their own daughter or sister, which Nirbhaya had virtually become for millions. Belying fears of violence, the congregations were somber, dignified and peaceful.
    Some doctors are now saying that Nirbhaya was brain dead for all practical purposes after the cardiac arrest during which her pulse or blood pressure could not be detected for 3-4 minutes. They are questioning the wisdom of moving her to Singapore in her utterly fragile condition. These questions, and several others, will now be raised. Not all of them may be answered, but one of them must be – what exactly will the government do now to make the country a safer and better place for all women? And what will all of us do to tackle the deeply entrenched prejudice and misogyny in our society?
    TV network and social media buzzed with suggestions. Some suggested an eyefor-an-eye kind of wild justice. Some said no, what was really required were changes in our law and policing, and above all, a societal change in the outlook towards women. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh vowed that Nirbhaya’s “death will not go in vain.”
5 CHANGES NEEDED IN OUR LAWS 1 Increase the deterrence against crimes against women. Change law to make life term plus chemical castration the punishment for violent rapes 2 Expand the definition of rape to include not just penile penetration of the vagina but also oral sex and penetration for sexual purpose of the vagina, anus, urethra or mouth 3 Introduce rape by security forces as a special category of aggravated sexual assault on the lines of the clause dealing with custodial rape 4 Enhance the maximum prison term for molestation from 2 to 5 years, & sexual harassment or what’s euphemistically called ‘eve-teasing’ from 1 to 3 years 5 Remove gender iniquities in the provisions relating to adultery and natural guardian and enact a special law to take preemptive action against caste assemblies inciting “honour killings” Doctors in Delhi didn’t conduct CT scan
    Prime Minister Manmohan Singh vowed that Nirbhaya's “death will not go in vain.” “It would be a true homage to her memory if we are able to channelize these emotions and energies into a constructive course of action,” he said. Sonia Gandhi made a rare televised statement to say that as a “woman and mother I understand how protestors feel. Today we pledge that the victim will get justice.”
    Doctors were actually hopeful of saving Nirbhaya until Tuesday night’s cardiac arrest. “Till then we were hopeful. But she never regained consciousness after 3 am on Wednesday after she suffered the heart attack,” a doctor attending to her told TOI, on condition of anonymity. Dr M C Misra, chief of AIIMS' trauma centre, said Nirbhaya had suffered from a deadly condition called “disseminated intravascular coagulation” (DIC) last Sunday following which she started bleeding from all over her body. DIC is a disorder in which the proteins that control blood clotting become abnormally active.
    “The DIC got us very worried. From Sunday to Tuesday she suffered from it. On Wednesday, when Dr P K Verma, ICU specialist taking care of her, took a small break to have dinner, she suffered a heart attack. That was a huge setback,” Dr Misra said.
    Doctors here didn’t conduct a CT scan to access her brain function because she was heavily sedated. Doctors also didn’t want to expose her to radiation.
    A full body scan conducted by doctors in Singapore showed that blood loss to her brain caused during the threeminute period, when her pulse and blood pressure were missing, led to the brain edema — a dangerous condition where the brain’s water content rises, causing the pressure to rise in the skull. This cut off the oxygen supply as the blood vessels became squeezed.
    Critical care specialist Dr Yatin Mehta from Medanta hospital who had accompanied Nirbhaya to Singapore told TOI on his return to India on Saturday morning that the swelling of the brain finally took her life. “A fresh episode of cardiac arrest resulted in multi-organ dysfunction syndrome. Her injuries were too severe. While being transported to Singapore, her oxygen requirements increased by 70%. We had carried 8 oxygen cylinders as standby, each capable to running for two hours, Six additional batteries were taken to ensure the machines run fine during the flight. Her BP fell to around 80 on route which we finally managed to bring back to normal. The injuries were horrendous,” said Dr Mehta.
    Dr Mehta also added that Nirbhaya's organs weren’t fit for donation as they were seriously infected. “We spoke to the family very frankly last night. We told her father and brothers that she is critical and might not pull through. Her family was stoic and handled the eventuality very mature fashion,” Dr Mehta said. Nirbhaya’s post-mortem was conducted at Singapore General Hospital.