The health condition of Shruti, a 21-year-old girl from Lakkavalli village in Chikkamagalur district, who sustained injuries during a scuba diving accident in Hawaii islands in the United States of America, continues to be critical.
Karthik, her elder brother, told The Hindu that according to doctors treating her at Maui Memorial Medical Centre in Sunnyvale, water in her brain has damaged brain cells. She has slipped into coma now, he said.
The family is waiting for the visa to visit her. Mr. Karthik and his parents applied for passports under tatkal scheme on July 4. “As soon as we get the passport and visa, we will fly to the U.S. to go see her,” he said.
The family had approached Shivamogga Deputy Commissioner M. Lokesh for passport and visa. Mr. Lokesh said the district administration had apprised officials in Ministry of External Affairs about the issue and requested officials of MEA to expedite the issue of passport and ensure speedy sanction of visa.
Shruti, daughter of Vishwanath from Lakkavalli, got married 11 months ago to Seetharamakrishna, a software engineer from Vijayawada, who was working in California. On June 30, the couple went to Hawaii on a holiday, where they went scuba diving.
“After the dive, they didn’t emerge owing to some problem with the air hose connected to the oxygen cylinder. Efforts were made immediately to rescue both Seetharamakrishna and Shruti. While Seetharamakrishna was immediately rescued, it took them nearly 10 minutes to bring Shruti out of the water. By then, she had already lost consciousness,” Mr. Karthik said.
