Victim breathing on her own,but there are signs of sepsis:Docs

The paramedical student, who was brutally assaulted and raped by a group of men on Sunday, began speaking to doctors.

She also expressed her desire to meet her mother, who is in and out of the hospital ever since she was brought to the Safdarjung Hospital.

Doctor attending on the young paramedic student said she was "conscious", able to speak and breathe on her own besides noting that her respiratory rate, pulse rate and urine output were normal.

On the flip side, the girl's condition deteriorated on account of plummeting of the White Blood Cells with doctors calling them "early signs of setting in of infection and sepsis."

"She has shown some mixed response. She has shown some signs of both improvement and deterioration. She is off the ventilator at the moment. She is breathing spontaneously on her own," Dr BD Athani, Medical Superintendent of the Hospital, told a press conference here.

He said the trials to take the patient off ventilator began at 12.30 PM yesterday and she was breathing without the help of the machine till 2 AM and from early morning till 3.30 PM this evening she was "off ventilator".

"She is stable and she is breathing on her own," Athani said, adding that platelet count is normal.

Giving details about the deterioration in her health, Athani said the level of bilirubin, the yellow breakdown product of normal heme catabolism, has increased to five which is a cause of concern as it would affect liver.

"There are early signs of setting up of infection. Infection seems to be setting in. These are early signs of sepsis. That is a part of the blood culture and several other. We have sent blood for test," he said. (More)