India gang-rape victim has brain injury

The Indian gang-rape victim airlifted to a Singapore hospital has a brain injury and is battling against the odds to survive, an official says.

In a bulletin issued the day after her arrival in Singapore, doctors at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital said the 23-year-old was battling an infection in her lungs and remained critically ill after the December 16 assault in Delhi.

'The patient is currently struggling against the odds, and fighting for her life,' Kelvin Loh, chief executive officer of Mount Elizabeth Hospital where she was airlifted to from India, said in a statement on Friday.

'Our medical team's investigations upon her arrival at the hospital yesterday showed that in addition to her prior cardiac arrest, she also had infection of her lungs and abdomen, as well as significant brain injury,' he added.

'A multi-disciplinary team of specialists has been working tirelessly to treat her since her arrival, and is doing everything possible to stabilise her condition over the next few days.'

On Thursday night, the hospital revealed that the woman, who is a student in Delhi, had undergone 'three abdominal surgeries and experienced a cardiac arrest in India' as it gave the first detailed rundown of her condition.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been treated in Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital since she was thrown off a bus in the capital after six men took turns to rape her at the back of the vehicle on December 16.

She also suffered severe intestinal injuries as a result of being assaulted with an iron bar, according to police and prosecutors.

The decision to fly her in a special air ambulance was taken at a meeting of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's cabinet on Wednesday, the government having already promised to pay all her medical bills.

But while ministers have insisted that the decision was taken purely on medical grounds, newspapers have suggested that authorities who have struggled to control nationwide protests over the attack were keen to have her transferred out of the country.

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India gang-rape victim has brain injury