Rape victim still critical, writes to mother 'I want to live'

The 23-year-old girl gangraped on a bus in south Delhi was brutalised so badly that she had only 5% of her intestine left inside her when she was brought to hospital on Sunday night. Rhythma Kaul reports. No option, victim’s intestines removed | Braveheart’s mom in dark about tragedy | Rape laws across the world

The 23-year-old girl gangraped on a bus in south Delhi was brutalised so badly that she had only 5% of her intestine left inside her when she was brought to hospital on Sunday night.

On Wednesday, doctors at the Safdarjung Hospital removed the remaining 15 inches of intestine in a bid to stop the spread of a life-threatening infection that had begun to develop in her many injuries.

The girl is in a critical condition and faces the prospect of never being able to eat a meal in her life if she survives.

But doctors said she was fighting on, and her brother told HT that she had written, “Mother, I want to live,” on a piece of paper.

As outrage continued to build across the nation, he added: "We want the culprits to be hanged as early as possible."

A doctor in the hospital said that it appeared that the girl had been violated with a metal rod.

“It appears to be that a rod was inserted into her and it was pulled out with so much force that the act brought out her intestines along. That is probably the only thing that explains such severe damage to her intestines,” he said.

According to sources, one of the accused persons who were brought to the hospital for a medical examination on Tuesday confessed to having seen a rope-like object — likely her intestines — being pulled out of the girl by the other assailants on the bus. The sources said that the girl had bite marks on her body.

“There was permanent damage to her intestines, and with the intestines completely gone she will have to feed through intravenous fluids all her life. But that is secondary, our primary focus at the moment is to save her life,” said Dr BD Athani, Medical Superintendent, Safdarjung Hospital.

The surgery was performed around 10am and at 12.30pm she was brought back to the ICU.

According to doctors, the girl withstood the surgery well and her vital parameters such as blood pressure, urine output, pulse rate and respiration are within the acceptable range of normalcy. Dr Athani said that the girl's abdomen, which had been open until today, had been cleaned and closed, with a tube inserted in her stomach to drain fluids.

"We have done whatever possible, now it is the question of maintaining her. Fortunately, she is responding well to medicines, and we hope she doesn’t develop any further complications,” he said.