Vanya Krapivin A boy who saved his mother from a man trying to rape her has died – 19 months after the attacker broke his skull.
Vanya Krapivin was making a good recovery after losing most of his frontal skull bone in May 2017’s attack, but contracted the flu two months ago and died on Tuesday.
The 16-year-old, from Severodvinsk in northwest Russia, came home from school to find a neighbour straddling his mother Natalia Krapivina, who was soaked in blood.
Roman Pronin was trying to force her to have sex with him, so Vanya picked up a 3kg dumbbell and hit the man with it.
But the 37-year-old grabbed the weight and struck the teenager over the head before fleeing, believing mother and son were dead.
Neighbours who heard their screams found the pair unconscious in pools of blood.
Vanya was then in a coma for nine months while his mother recovered after being stabbed 27 times.
Surgeons had to remove some of his brains, prompting popular TV presenter Andrey Malkhov to launch a fundraising campaign to buy titanium plates for his skull and to cover other medical expenses.
A year after the attack, he showed “light signs of being conscious” – and in June, Vanya started to recognise his nurse and could eat liquidised food.
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A month later, he was sent to Moscow to a rehabilitation centre and funds were being raised to send him to Spain for further recovery.
He contracted the flu in October.
Vanya’s mother has faced criticism in Russia for only visiting him a few times. She said she could not bring herself to see him because she blamed herself for the attack.
Before the attack, she had continually asked authorities to stop Pronin, a convicted murderer who had been released from prison, from living near her family upon release.