Delhi rape: Girl showing early signs of sepsis, say doctors

New Delhi: The 23-year-old gangrape victim showed “mixed response” to treatment today, with doctors saying she started breathing spontaneously on her own but was showing early signs of infection and sepsis. The paramedical student, who was brutally assaulted and raped by a group of men on Sunday, began speaking to doctors. [caption id=“attachment_566026” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Ibnlive[/caption] She also expressed her desire to meet her mother, who is in and out of the hospital ever since she was brought to the Safdarjung Hospital. Doctor attending on the young paramedic student said she was “conscious”, able to speak and breathe on her own besides noting that her respiratory rate, pulse rate and urine output were normal. On the flip side, the girl’s condition deteriorated on account of plummeting of the White Blood Cells with doctors calling them “early signs of setting in of infection and sepsis.” “She has shown some mixed response. She has shown some signs of both improvement and deterioration. She is off the ventilator at the moment. She is breathing spontaneously on her own,” Dr BD Athani, Medical Superintendent of the Hospital, told a press conference here. He said the trials to take the patient off ventilator began at 12.30 PM yesterday and she was breathing without the help of the machine till 2 AM and from early morning till 3.30 PM this evening she was “off ventilator”. “She is stable and she is breathing on her own,” Athani said, adding that platelet count is normal. Giving details about the deterioration in her health, Athani said the level of bilirubin, the yellow breakdown product of normal heme catabolism, has increased to five which is a cause of concern as it would affect liver. “There are early signs of setting up of infection. Infection seems to be setting in. These are early signs of sepsis. That is a part of the blood culture and several other. We have sent blood for test,” he said. The girl, who has shown “immense fighting spirit”, is attempting to speak normally, doctors said. She asked for water to the doctors who are keeping a 24/7 watch on her at the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital. “We are allowing her to speak as minimum as possible. We don’t want her to start talking at this stage. The basic and required minimum we are talking to her. No excessive talking is allowed at this point,” Athani said. Other doctors said the girl wanted to meet her mother, but did not made it clear whether the meeting took place. To repeated questions on whether Delhi Police recorded a statement from the victim, the Medical Superintendent evaded a direct reply saying they were doing their job and doctors were doing theirs. “It (recording statement) depends on her current state of condition, her state of health and we will ask her mother and we would definitely permit,” he said. Athani, however, refused to say whether a statement has already been recorded or not. To a question, he said they have been keeping the patient on high dose of antibiotic and high standards of hygiene is being maintained — two important factors for preventing infection. “And because we have to maintain high state of hygiene we are requesting citizens to not to make a plea for seeing the patient,” he said. PTI