Delhi gang-rape victim battles on, undergoes fifth surgery

The 23-year-old paramedical student, who was gangraped and tortured in a moving bus on Sunday night, today underwent fifth surgery and "continues to be critical but stable", doctors attending on her said.

Doctors at the Safdarjung hospital where she is undergoing treatment performed an elective abdominal surgery --gastronomy and duodenustromy -- and surgeons had to remove her gangrenous small intestine. They said she has lost most of her intestine.

"This was a planned surgery and at this juncture she is responding to treatment fairly well, she is stable but she continues to be critical," Dr B D Athani, Medical Superintendent of the hospital, said.

The girl, who remains on ventilatory support, was taken to operation theatre at 10 AM and was shifted to ICU at around 1 PM after surgery. Doctors said she had withstood the operation fairly well.

"She is fairly stable at this juncture and we have to wait and watch. We would observe for the stability for next few hours," she said.

"Before going for surgery, she was quite alert and spoke to her mother and brother as at that time there was no tube so she utilised that opportunity but her father didn't go inside," doctors said.

Athani said that yesterday also her level of alertness was good but today since she is recovering from anaesthesia, she is "not communicating nor are we are trying to communicate".

"Her abdomen has been cleaned and it has been closed today. Because most of the intestine, almost all portion, I would say, because of the initial loss and subsequent gangrene is not existent," he said.

Doctors said that Duodenum, which is the first part of the intestine, has been brought out of the stomach and a tube has been put into drain out whatever secretions are there.

She is being fed intravenously. She is getting feeding as well as antibiotics and all her essential drugs through intravenous route.

"With this, all that was to be done on emergency basis and all that could be done subsequently on elective basis has been done by our team of doctors who have been attending her since the time of admission," Athani said.

Doctors said they will wait and watch and hope that she does not develop further complications.

"Now it is a question of maintaining her in the ICU by providing her ventilatory support, which she already has and we hope she would become stable and we hope that she doesn't develop any complications which are anticipated in the injuries of this nature," he said.

Athani said that now no surgical intervention is to be done or are planned to be done in near future or in next one or two days or in one week.

"We have to wait and watch that the patient is stable within next few days. When we say she is stable it means her blood pressure, pulse rate, urinary output and respirations are within the acceptable range of normalcy," he said.

Asked about how she is faring, the doctor said "she is fighting with a good spirit. You know that even when she was brought to the hospital after around three hours delay she was alert, her level of consciousness was good. She and her friend had even given statement to the police.