Indian Gang Rape: Victim Of Delhi Sex Attack In Extremely Critical Condition

The 23-year-old Delhi woman whose gang-rape ordeal on a city bus sparked protests throughout India was on Thursday night in "an extremely critical condition" after being airlifted to a hospital in Singapore.
The Indian government, which has faced fierce criticism over the incident and its failure to reduce the number of rapes in the capital, decided to fly her to Singapore as her condition appeared to worsen.
She was taken early yesterday to Singapore's Mount Elizabeth Hospital, which specialises in organ transplant surgery. The hospital said she remained critically ill and that their doctors were fighting to stabilise her condition.
Dr. Kelvin Loh, the hospital's chief executive, said: "The patient remains in an extremely critical condition. She is under treatment at Mount Elizabeth Hospital's Intensive Care Unit.
"Prior to her arrival, she has already undergone three abdominal surgeries and experienced a cardiac arrest in India.
"A multi-disciplinary team of specialists is taking care of her and doing everything possible to stabilise her condition."
Doctors at Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital earlier said that she had been transferred because the Singapore hospital has a "state-of-the-art multi-organ transplant facility."
They became increasingly concerned about her condition after she began to develop breathing problems, despite showing earlier improvement.
She was put back on a ventilator as hospital directors and government ministers considered their next move. India's government is paying for her treatment.
The woman was attacked by six men after she boarded a bus with a male friend following a trip to the cinema. They were beaten with iron bars and the woman was raped repeatedly as the bus cruised the streets of South Delhi unchallenged. Eventually, after more than an hour, she and her friend were thrown unconscious from the bus on a flyover.
The Indian government said yesterday it would post the photos, names and addresses of convicted rapists on official websites to publicly shame them, in a new measure to combat growing crime against women.
Ratanjit Pratap Narain Singh, India's junior home minister, said the campaign would begin first in New Delhi.
The minister said the government-run National Crime Records Bureau had been told to prepare a directory of convicted rapists and upload their photographs and personal details to its official website as well.
There have been widespread demonstrations throughout India over the attack and the government's failure to address the high level of sexual assaults, in particular in Delhi which campaigners say is India's 'rape capital.' Sexual assault is treated lightly in India where it is referred to as 'Eve-teasing' and women are often to report incidents to the police because they fear officers will believe they invited the attack.
The prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh yesterday sought again to reassure women their safety was at the top of the government's priorities, but he was undermined by a Congress MP, the son of President Pranab Mukherjee, who dismissed protestors as 'pretty' women who were out of touch. "Women who are participating in candle-light vigils and those who are protesting have no connection with ground reality. These pretty ladies coming out to protest are 'highly dented and painted,'" he said, implying they were part of the city's liberal elite.