The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has declined to rename Ward 4 in KEM hospital after a nurse who died in 2015 after spending 42 years in a vegetative state as a result of near-fatal sexually assault. Aruna Shanbaug, a nurse who had been employed at KEM Hospital, was sexually assaulted and choked by ward boy Sohanlal Valmiki on November 27, 1973, which left her in a vegetative state for 42 years. She had been a special occupant of Ward 4 since then. After her death on May 18, 2015, Shiv Sena corporator Sheetal Mhatre had moved a notice of motion in June 2015, asking the civic body to name the ward number 4 in KEM Hospital after Shanbaug. Mhatre had asked the civic administration to consider this as a special case. The Supreme Court had given Shanbaug’s guardianship to KEM hospital, and nurses, doctors, and staff took very good care of her. So, in her memory and for the hospital staff’s selfless service, the ward should be named after her, Mhatre had said. Shanbaug was shifted out of Ward no 4 on only two occasions — in 2013 when she contracted pneumonia and then during her last few days. However, the civic administration has refused to rename the ward. “The name of ‘Aruna Shanbaug’ can not be given to ward no. 4. However, in her memory and the staff’s selfless service, a library has been started in the nursing home for student nurses in KEM hospital,” stated a reply of the civic administration. The statement said that new books for the library would be bought soon. “The gymnasium has also been started for students and some machinery has also been bought. Also, new machinery is being purchased,” it added.
