Rajkot: Baby girl delivered by 11-year-old rape survivor dies

Doctors of KT Sheth Children’s Government Hospital, where the infant was rushed to, said she was almost brought dead. “She was in the last gasps when she was brought to the hospital and there was little we could do at that stage,” Dr Yogesh Parikh, head of paediatrics department of PDU Medical College, Rajkot told The Indian Express.

KT Sheth Children’s Government Hospital is part of Rajkot civil hospital and is attached to the PDU Medical College.

“She had a congenital defect called spina befida and therefore, had little control over her body functions. Surgery was not possible in her case. Patients with such type of condition rarely survive long,” Dr Parikh further said.

The baby girl was delivered by the 11-year-old rape-survivor at Rasulkhanji Zanana Hospital on Rajkot civil hospital campus on March 17. The infant was referred to Ahmedabad civil hospital a day later for further treatment after doctors in Rajkot diagnosed that it had a congenital defect. A team of doctors in Ahmedabad civil hospital had examined the baby girl and had decided against performing any neurological surgery given her condition and age. Eventually, she was referred back to the KT Sheth hospital on March 28.

While her mother was discharged from Zanana hospital on March 24, the newborn had kept on fighting for her life in the KT Sheth hospital later on. Police say that as the rape survivor’s family refused to claim the baby-girl, she was handed over to a city-based NGO early this month.

The case had come to light on March 12 when a woman filed a complaint with Bhaktinagar police station in the city alleging two men had raped her 11-year-old daughter. The case was later transferred to Mahila Police Station for investigation. During the course of the investigation, police found that the girl was raped repeatedly by six persons over a period of at least eight months before the matter was reported to police. Police have arrested six persons for allegedly raping the girl who is studying in Class VII. Two elderly and a juvenile are among those arrested by the police for brutalising the girl. Police say all the accused are neighbours of the victim who is a resident of Kothariya road of the city.