Aruna Shanbaug Biography 
Aruna Shanbaug was a former nurse at King Edward Memorial Hospital, Mumbai in the early 1970s who was sexually assaulted by a ward boy. She was pulled into a vegetative state since the unfortunate incident. She is still unconscious in the hospital bed for long 41 years and hospital staff serves her since then. In 2011 her case captured world attention when her friend cum journalist Pinki Virani filed a plea to give euthanasia and end her miserable life. However court turned down the mercy killing petition though a landmark judgment was made - to allow passive euthanasia. Euthanasia is illegal in India and many parts of the world, as people may use it for wrong purposes.
Aruna Shanbaug was a junior nurse at King Edward Memorial Hospital, Mumbai in 1973. This girl from Haldipur, Uttar Kannada, Karnataka reached Mumbai at the age of 18 to pursue her dreams. This staff nurse, 25 years then, was in love with a doctor of same institute and got engaged too. Her fiancé, Dr. Sundeep Sardesai, was a staff doctor who was studying for MD exams. They both planned to get married and marriage date was also fixed when a single night changed everything. A ward boy, Sohanlal Bhartha Walmiki working is the same hospital disliked her a lot. Aruna was a strict disciplinarian who didn’t allow Sohanlal’s bad practices and he decided to take revenge on her.
November 27th, 1973 evening. Aruna just completed her shift and entered the basement of the building where the dog research lab was situated, to change her dress. Nurses’ room was just a few floors away. Yet she entered the room neglecting matron’s warning. Sohanlal was waiting for this moment. He took a dog chain in his hand, followed her and attacked her. He choked her with a dog chain and sodomized her as she was menstruating. Her oxygen supply to brain was cut off and she laid there unnoticed till next morning. It was late and she became brain dead.
The whole matter was suppressed and a case of robbery and attempted murder was made. Dean of KEM, Dr. Deshpande did so, as Aruna’s marriage was already fixed. Sohanlal was convicted and sentenced to seven-year sentence for assault and robbery only. Today no one knows where he is; perhaps a new man with a new name! Her fiancée waited for her for 4 years and later got married under family pressure. Aruna is still in bed in coma, lost connections to the whole world, yet incapable of telling the whole world, how she is feeling right now! She often responds to her favourite songs and when her favourite dishes fed. Does euthanasia be given to her to end her painful life? Still hot debates are going on.
When the plea of mercy killing was rejected, the hospital staff celebrated the occasion by distributing sweets. That shows how nurses love her and want to treat her as a family member. Shanbaug died from pneumonia on 18 May 2015 after being in a persistent vegetative state for nearly 42 years.
Published: N/A
Updated: November 22, 2015
