Shinde defends move to shift Delhi gangrape survivor, says it was not political

New Delhi: Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on Wednesday defended the government's move to shift Delhi gangrape survivor, who is battling for her life, to Singapore and refuted allegations that the decision was political. "The decision to shift (the survivor) was not political. We had consulted doctors," said the home minister.

The survivor, who continues to be extremely critical at Singapore's Mount Elizabeth Hospital, was airlifted on Wednesday night in a sudden move, along with a team of doctors and her family members. Apart from massive abdominal injuries, she also suffering from major brain injuries.

Doubts have been raised as to why the 23-year-old was shifted there for treatment. Shifting a critically ill patient carries an inherent risk even in air ambulances. Air ambulances need to be specifically maintained for pressure equilibrium. Pressure disequilibrium can make the patient hemodynamically unstable.

Doubts have been raised as to why the 23-year-old woman was air lifted to Singapore in a sudden move by the govt.

Dr Samiran Nundy from Delhi's Gangra Ram Hospital has said that medically there was no need for the survivor to be shifted to Singapore. "There must be a lot of considerations as to why she was moved - political, social, emotional - but medically, I think it is sad that we send people like her to other countries when there are facilities here. Shifting such a dangerously ill patient was incorrect," he said. "If she was my patient, I would not have shifted her," Dr Nundy added.

The young physiotherapy student studying in Delhi was brutally beaten with iron rods and then raped by half-a-dozen men in a moving bus in the national capital on December 16. She has been battling with a host of internal injuries and doctors at Safdarjung Hospital, where she had been getting treatment before she was moved to Singapore, had performed three complex surgeries on her, including the one where they removed her gangrenous intestines.

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