On New Years Eve, Rakshitha Mallepally, an Indian international student studying in Australia, was involved in a serious road accident in Sydney.
Just after 3:30am on Thursday 31 December 2020 emergency services attended Wentworth Avenue, Pendle Hill in Western Sydney in response to reports that a motorcycle had crashed.
Upon arrival, NSW Ambulance paramedics and police found a 20-year-old Rakshitha with serious head injuries. She was taken to nearby Westmead Hospital in a critical condition but died the following day.
Rakshitha was studying a Bachelor of Information Technology at IIBIT college, Sydney.
Sreenadh Brahmapuram, a community worker who has been providing support in the case, told Indian Link:
She finished work at Hello Fresh at 1 am and had a telephone chat with her mother. She hopped on to her scooter with a friend to go buy a snack at the local 7-11. Caught in the headlight flash of an oncoming car, she lost control, throwing her pillion rider off and shortly thereafter falling to the road herself. She hit her head on the pavement.
Immediately following the accident Rakshitha lay in an induced coma in hospital. With no hope of recovery, doctors suggested organ donation. Her devastated parents in Hyderabad agreed.
Rakshitha Mallepally has now saved or improved the lives of 9 Australians through the donation of her organs.
Community supports parents
The Indian community moved quickly to support Rakshitha’s parents to help repay the loans they took to fund their daughter’s studies in Australia, and to repatriate her remains.
A GoFundMe page established by one of Rakshitha’s relatives raised over A$60,000 in three days.
The GoFundMe page explained:
Rakshitha’s parents Venkat Reddy Mallepally & Anitha Mallepally are devastated with the news. They are living in a rental house in Hyderabad and her father Venkat Reddy retired from Indian Army now working at BDL leading a humble middle-class life. Just like any other middle-class father Venkat Reddy borrowed money from multiple sources to fund Rakshitha’s studies with the hope that she will eventually earn and pay it off.
The International Institute of Business & Information Technology where the young woman was studying also contributed $8000 towards repatriation fees.
Rakshitha’s remains will return to her home in India on Friday 8 January via a Qatar Airways flight.
Better road safety education needed
Adelaide-based Voriganti Shakti Goud raised concerns regarding Indian international students dying on roads.
So many students are die in road accidents. Last year I saw a 21-year-old boy from Kerala killed in a roan accident in Adelaide. I think international students should be educated on road safety.
Sources: IndiaLink News, SBS