Indian nurse, in coma for 42 years after rape, dies at 68

Aruna Shanbaug, who has been in a coma for 42 years, has died at KEM Hospital in Mumbai, India. She was 68.

Aruna died at the Intensive Care unit of the state-run hospital where she had worked and was raped, reports the NDTV.

Aruna was raped by a staff member of the hospital in 1973.

According to the report, doctors said Aruna was suffering from pneumonia and was on ventilator support.

Aruna was 26 years old and a junior nurse at the hospital when she was assaulted and raped allegedly by a ward boy and cleaner named Sohanlal Bharta Valmiki.

The accused also choked her with a dog chain, leaving her comatose.

In 2011, the Supreme Court of India rejected a plea by author Pinki Virani to stop force feeding her. The author had written a book titled "Aruna's Story,"and had argued for euthanasia.

However, former and present staff members and nurses at of the hospital strongly opposed euthanasia.