By IANS,
New Delhi: Two days after 54-year-old homemaker Raj Bala was brutally assaulted in the police crackdown on yoga guru Baba Ramdev’s protest here, the Delhi government Tuesday offered “all support” to the victim’s family.
Delhi Health Minister A.K. Walia visited the G.B. Pant Hospital here Tuesday afternoon where Raj Bala is admitted and met her family members.
“He (Walia) asked us of any problem that we may have faced and offered us all possible help in the future,” Raj Bala’s younger son, Sunil Kumar, told IANS.
Anil Kumar, her elder son, added: “The health minister visited the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and met my mother. After that, he met the rest of us”.
According to the doctors attending on her, Raj Bala’s condition continues to be critical and she is on ventilator support.
“She had her neurological surgery yesterday, after which she is on continuous ventilator support. She is still in a critical condition and we don’t know when will she be able to recover. Recovery chances in such cases are very rare,” a doctor told IANS.
A resident of Gurgaon, Raj Bala is one of the many who fell victim to the post- Saturday midnight police crackdown on thousands of Ramdev supporters at the Ramlila Ground here.
Doctors at the G.B. Pant Hospital said Raj Bala was beaten up with police “lathis” (staffs) – as stated by witnesses to the assault – on her neck and back.
In the process, her spinal cord has been damaged.
A report by the hospital’s Medical Superintendent N. Shashi Gururaja said: “Bala has suffered post-traumatic fracture dislocation with quadriplegia (paralysis). The patient does not have spontaneous respiration and is on ventilator support”.
Raj Bala was among the many who were initially rushed to the Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan Hospital, the medical facility nearest to the Ramlila ground, before being shifted to the neighbouring G.B. Pant Hospital.