Ramdev supporter with spinal wounds still critical

The condition of Raj Bala, the woman who received spinal injuries in the police lathicharge at Ramlila Maidan in the wee hours of Sunday, remained critical on Monday at the G B Pant hospital in New Delhi, doctors said.

51-year-old Raj Bala was one of the 71 people injured in the pre-dawn police crackdown at Ramlila Maidan, where yoga guru Ramdev was holding his indefinite hunger strike.

According to doctors at the hospital Raj Bala is still in a critical condition and under continuous monitoring.

"She does not have spontaneous respiration and is on ventilatory support. She is cosnscious and is obeying simple verbal commands. She is quadraplegic and is on drugs to maintain blood pressure. She is in ICU17 and is under the observation of Dr Sanjiv Sinha," a doctor with G B Pant hospital said.

"She underwent a surgery yesterday. After investigations we found that she had a post traumatic fracture dislocation C4-C5

with quadraplegia. We have done a decompression and fixation using plate, screw and cage," he said.

All the injured were first taken to the Lok Narayan Jai Prakash hospital. Of the 71 patients, 31 were admitted to the LNJP hospital while four were shifted to the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital and one (Raj Bala) was sent to the GB Pant hospital. All have beeen discharged except only two patients including Raj Bala who continue to undergo treatment.

A doctor with the LNJP hospital said, "All have been discharged after proper treatment. We had discharged 45 immediately after they were brought in after giving them proper medication. We admitted 31 who were kept under observation and were discharged on Monday morning. Only one is admitted with us till now and is undergoing treatment."