KEM nursing staff have already begun to feel the emptiness with Shanbaug’s absence
Mumbai : Just a day after Aruna Shanbaug’s death, the nursing staff of KEM hospital have begun to feel a void in their lives. They had developed a special attachment with Shanbaug in the last 42 years and miss her now. The room of ward no.4 of the hospital which was occupied by Shanbaug for the last four decades has been locked. However, a photo frame has been kept on her bed and it has been decorated with flowers. The nursing staff can feel the emptiness in their lives with the absence of Shanbaug.
“Aruna Shanbaug was our sister, friend and family in whom we could confide our secrets. Now we are left alone with only her memories. She has shown great strength for the past 42 years and she has won millions of hearts by portraying such bravery,” expressed Anuradha Paradhe, a senior nurse from KEM hospital who used to take care of Shanbaug.
On the horrifying night of November 27, 1973 Shanbaug was brutally assaulted by a hospital ward-boy. He had throttled her neck by a dog chain following which she suffered spine injuries and was left to bleed in agony.
Since then, the hospital nursing staff was taking care of all her needs. Reviving the moments spent with Shanbaug, the nurses of the hospital expressed that she will always be remembered as a woman of courage. “We all had a unique bond with her which cannot be defined by anyone. She had become our family with whom we would talk and share our happiness but now we don’t know what to do. In the morning when I entered her ward, the sight of an empty bed and room filled a lump in my throat and I cannot express how much we are going to miss our Aruna,” added Paradhe.
Adding further, the nurses said that they could feel Shanbaug’s pain and trauma that she had gone through that night and the impact was so deep that she could not bear any male’s presence. “Whenever Shanbaug used to feel any male member’s presence in the room, she used to start howling like a wounded person. Such was the agony experienced by her. But yesterday, her long ordeal came to an end. Shanbaug was and will always be a part of KEM family and her story about courage and bravery will always be passed on to future batches,” said one of the nurses from KEM hospital.
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MP govt to institute award
Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh government has announced an award of Rs one lakh in the name of Aruna Shanbaug. “Madhya Pradesh government will give an award of Rs one lakh every year to a person working in the field of crime against women in the memory of Aruna Shanbaug,” Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said, announcing the award at the Second Women Panchayat, held at his official residence here. The panchayat was organised to announce new women’s policy and mitigate problems faced by women in the state.
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