A determined Nirbhaya is hanging on by a slender thread. At 9pm (Singapore time) on Friday, Mount Elizabeth hospital issued a grim update on her health – that her condition has taken a turn for the worse, she has had "severe organ failure" despite maximum artificial ventilation support and optimal antibiotic doses. Her family was informed at 6.30pm IST about her deteriorating condition and was currently by her side "to encourage and comfort her."

This is the grimmest fight that Nirbhaya is putting up in the last 12 days since she was brutally gang–raped on December 16. Earlier in the day, the Singapore doctors admitted that Wednesday’s cardiac arrest had caused severe damage to Nirbhaya’s brain. It is learnt that fluids had begun to accumulate in her lungs which could not be drained out because her blood platelet count dipped to almost 60,000.