Former KEM Hospital nurse Aruna Shanbaug put on ventilator

Former King Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital nurse Aruna Shanbaug, 66, who has been in a vegetative state since 42 years, after she was sexually assaulted by a hospital sweeper in November 27, 1973, was put on the ventilator after breathing trouble, hospital officials said here today.

Aruna, who is in coma, suffered shortage of breath three days ago and has been put on a ventilator, they said.

Last year, Aruna was shifted back to a newly furbished room at the municipal corporation-run KEM Hospital in Parel after a week-long stay in the intensive care unit.

In March 2011, the Supreme Court had rejected a petition filed by former journalist and author Pinki Virani, who had sought mercy killing (euthanasia) for Aruna Shanbaug, which the KEM hospital's management and nursing staff had opposed.

Virani had narrated the story of the ailing nurse in her 1998 non-fiction book called 'Aruna's Story', while Duttakumar Desai wrote the Marathi play, 'Katha Arunachi' in 1994–95, which was staged under director Vinay Apte in 2002.