India's High Commissioner to Singapore, Dr. T. C. A. Raghavan attends an unscheduled press conference at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore on Dec. 29, 2012. The 23-year-old victim of the recent gang rape died at the hospital at 4:45 a.m. on Saturday after suffering from severe organ failure. (Photo: Xinhua)
A 23-year-old college student who was recently gang-raped in the Indian capital of Delhi died in a private hospital in Singapore on early Saturday, the hospital said.
"We are very sad to report that the patient passed away peacefully at 4.45 a.m.," Kelvin Loh, chief executive officer of the Mount Elizabeth Hospital, said in a statement.
The family members of the victim and the High Commission of India were with her at the time.
Loh said that the patient had "remained in an extremely critical condition since admission" and her condition continued to deteriorate despite the best efforts of a team of eight specialists at the hospital.
He added that the hospital share the family's huge sadness at her passing and "will work with the High Commission of India to provide the family support."
The patient has been under intensive care since she was flown in from India on Thursday. The hospital said earlier that she had signs of severe organ failure and suffered serious injuries to her body and brain. Doctors had put her on maximum artificial ventilation support, optimal antibiotic doses and stimulants which maximize her body's capability to fight infections.
"She was courageous in fighting for her life for so long against the odds but the trauma to her body was too severe for her to overcome," the hospital said.
Local media reports said the body of the patient will be flown back to India.
The patient was flown in from India on Thursday, eleven days after she was assaulted on a moving bus in India. Authorities said the decision to transfer her to the Singapore hospital was based on the consideration that she could have access the facilities needed for a multi-organ transplant here.
News reports said the young woman was beaten repeatedly with an iron rod and gang-raped on Dec. 16 in the Indian capital, where sex crimes have been rampant in recent years. Official statistics showed there were 572 rape cases in 2011 and more than 600 cases this year, but there could be more unreported cases.
Another woman was gang-raped by three people and dumped in a southern Delhi locality on Wednesday.
Those familiar with life in Delhi said that it is known to be unsafe for young women to travel outdoors in the evening there, as there is an obvious shortage of public transport services in the city of more than 16 million people and the operations of private buses were often not regulated.
The outrageous crime triggered protests and calls for death penalties for the culprits in India. Authorities later moved to disperse and ban such protests and vowed to mete out severe punishments to the culprits. They also said they would publish the names and photos of the suspects to shame them.
