Mumbai acid attack victim critical after suffering lung collapse in hospital

Twenty days after she sustained severe injuries and lost an eye in an acid attack at Mumbai’s Bandra station, Bombay hospital doctors said that Preeti Rathi’s right lung has collapsed, making her condition ‘very critical’. Doctors are trying to stabilise her as she is on vetillator struggling to breathe, as per a Mumbai Mirror report. Preeti developed an infection after undergoing a surgical procedure to enable feeding due to leakage in her wind and food pipes, causing her right lung to completely collapse. [caption id=“attachment_808609” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. PTI[/caption] “Because her wind pipe has been damaged, air is escaping from it and collecting around the lungs. The pressure is preventing her from inhaling and exhaling fully, due to which she often feels breathless. We will keep her on ventilator for now because her condition deteriorates the moment we take her off life-support,” Dr Ashok Gupta, senior plastic surgeon, Bombay Hospital, was quoted saying in the report. 25-year-old Preeti was attacked by a masked man on May 2 at the Bandra terminus. She sustained severe burns on her face, chest, arms and digestive tract. Preethi, a Delhi resident, wanted to join the Army Medical College as a nurse the same day. She was admitted to the Masina Hospital in Byculla first, after which she was shifted to Bombay Hospital. Preethi’s mother Roshni has blamed a delay in treatment at Masina Hospital for her condition.

“She has been in hospital for 20 days but her condition is worsening. Doctors there (at Masina Hospital) only treated her external wounds and did not concentrate on internal wounds, which are quite serious. She has been running fever for several days and also contracted a chest infection. The authorities (at Masina Hospital) should have told us they do not have facilities to treat her further,” she was quoted as saying in a report by The Indian Express. Railway police are yet to zero in on her attacker. Rathi’s family has demanded a CBI investigation into the matter.