Teen who saved his mother from rape, dies

The unsuspecting teen boy came home after school to a grisly scene. Before him was his mother, drenched in blood, and straddling her was their neighbour.

Roman Pronin (then 37) was about to rape Natalia Krapivina (then 42) when Vanya (then 15) walked in.

Vanya grabbed a 3kg dumbbell to hit the attacker but Pronin overpowered him, grabbed the weight and repeatedly hit the teenager over the head with it, Sky News reports.

Pronin fled the scene, believing both mother and son were dead but they survived – and their lives would never be the same again.

According to Metro.co.uk, Natalia, who was stabbed 27 times, survived the May 2017 incident but heroic Vanya spent the following nine months in a coma. A part of his brain had to be removed, he suffered serious brain damage and lost most of the frontal bone of his skull.

A year later Vanya, from Severodvinsk in Northwest Russia, displayed "light signs of being conscious" after being treated by top Russian surgeon Leonid Roshal. 

In June this year he recognised his nurse and started eating mashed food and porridge, The Sun writes. But his health took a knock when, in October, he contracted the flu. Despite intensive medical treatment, his condition deteriorated and on December 6 he died. 

Pronin was already a convicted criminal when he moved into the block of flats where the family lived, Metro.co.uk reports. 

He's been jailed for 14 years for the two attempted murders and is now facing an additional murder charge after Vanya's death.

SOURCES: METRO.CO.UK, SKY NEWS, THE SUN