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Just as fiercely as she fought with her attackers, to thwart their advances, 16-year-old Poonam battled with her wounds for 17 days before succumbing to the trauma and pain at the King George's Medical University in Lucknow on Thursday night.
The minor girl had sustained grievous injuries all over her body during the attack by three assailants , who not only threw acid on her but also hit her indiscriminately with a crude weapon on February 7, in Shafipur village of Unnao district, about 60 km from Lucknow.
While cops could lay their hands only on one of the culprits, the other two are still at large, even as poor Poonam was rushed from one hospital to another in the hope that medical aid would help her recover.
Poonam was returning to her thatched home on the evening of February 7, when three young men from her own neighbourhood pounced on her. Poonam used all her might to thwart them, when one of the attackers Ramsewak sprayed abottle of acid on her face, while his accomplice hit her with a blunt weapon.
Loud screams by the girl alerted other villagers who rushed towards her, as she lay crying and groaning in pain.
Her father a daily wage labourer rushed Poonam to the nearest government dispensary in Unnao where she could not receive anything beyond first aid . So, he took her the very next morning to the well known LLR district hospital in Kanpur.
She required urgent surgery, but doctors at the Kanpur hospital suddenly expressed their inability to carry out the surgical procedure for want of required instruments in the operation theatre, leaving her unattended for another day.
Only when the media took the issue to a high pitch, she was shifted to the ICU on February 10. However, in the next 24 hours, she developed septicemia followed by partial paralysis on account of the blows she had received on her head.
Her CT scan was done on February 13 followed by blood transfusion over the next two days. Yet , her condition did not seem to improve. It took four days for the doctors to fix her surgery for February 21, but once again the surgeons backed out at the eleventh hour and preferred to refer the girl to the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences in Lucknow, where she was refused admission.
Eventually, a local journalist from Hindustan Times came to the girl's rescue and got her admitted to the trauma centre of King George's Medical University on February 21. Her battle for survival continued for the next three days but apathetic doctors continued to linger on with the case and finally she breathed her last without receiving any specialised treatment or the desired surgery.
Even the woman constable Saroj Shukla, who was detailed to escort her after the issue hit the headlines, was deeply touched by Poonam's pitiable condition. "The poor girl remained a target of neglect and apathy at every stage", she told reporters here while waiting for fours before post-mortem could take place.I had to argue with the doctors at every stage , but they seemed to be totally indifferent to the girl's plight; what was worse that even after she dies, the doctors on duty did not show any concern to complete the documents required for the post-mortem", the khakhi-clad cop lamented with tears rolling down her eyes.
"I only hope and pray that each of the culprits get the severest punishment that they all deserve", she asserted.