An abandoned baby girl who survived meningitis, numerous broken bones and was brought to hospital covered in human bite marks has lost her fight for life.
The fate of the two-year-old, named Baby Falak, had gripped her home country of India, after her heart-breaking case came to light in January.
Baby Falak (meaning ‘the sky’) was brought to hospital by a teenage girl who had claimed she had been looking after her.
She had severe head injuries, two broken arms and suffered a heart attack on the day she was admitted. Her body and face were also covered in human bite marks, the Times Of India reported.
But Baby Falak clung to life, and was hailed as India’s ‘miracle baby’. She sailed through six life-saving operations at Delhi’s AIIMS Hospital, recovered from meningitis and had recently been taken off life support.
Sadly she died of a second heart attack last night.
"She was doing well over the past few days. The infection was under control and we weaned her off the ventilator. The sudden death due to cardiac arrest is surprising and sad”, neurosurgeon Dr Deepak Aggarwal told the BBC.
An investigation into her injuries led to the arrest of 13 people accused of human trafficking, including a man who abandoned the child with his teenage girlfriend.
Falak’s poverty-stricken mother had been lured to Delhi by a gang trafficking sex workers and her baby was passed among them.
The 22-year-old, who is now living in a woman’s shelter, was able to visit her daughter before she died on Thursday.