A Mumbai nurse who was in a coma for 42 years after being sexually assaulted while working in a hospital has died, authorities have said.

Aruna Shanbaug suffered severe brain damage and was in a vegetative state after she was raped and strangled by a hospital worker in 1973.

Aruna Shanbaug was brutally assaulted and raped by a wardboy-cum-sweeper of the hospital, Sohanlal Bharta Valmiki who throttled her with a dog chain. The brutal assault cut off blood and oxygen supply to key parts of her brain.

Valmiki is sentenced to six years in prison. He is released in 1980

Shanbaug was diagnosed with pneumonia last week and had been on a life support system for the past few days, said Pravin Bangar, medical superintendent at Mumbai’s King Edward Memorial hospital.

Her case sparked a debate over India’s euthanasia laws after a Mumbai-based author and friend of the nurse petitioned the courts to stop force-feeding her through a tube so her suffering would not be prolonged.

India’s supreme court rejected the petition filed by Pinki Virani, who had sought euthanasia for Shanbaug, saying the court should “end her unbearable agony”.

The case was opposed by nurses at the hospital, who cared for her for more than four decades after Shanbaug’s family said they were unable to support her.