New Delhi, March 24: Harish Rana, the first person in India to be allowed passive euthanasia, passed away on Tuesday at AIIMS-Delhi after more than 13 years in a coma, officials said.
The 31-year-old, who has been in a coma since 2013, was shifted from his Ghaziabad home to the palliative care unit at Dr BR Ambedkar Institute Rotary Cancer Hospital at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on March 14.
“Harish Rana passed away at 4:10 pm on March 24 at AIIMS, Delhi. He was under the care of a dedicated team of doctors and was admitted to the Palliative Oncology Unit (IRCH), led by Dr Seema Mishra, HoD, Onco-Anaesthesia and Palliative Medicine.
“AIIMS extends its heartfelt condolences to his family and loved ones during this difficult time,” the hospital said in a statement.
On March 11, the Supreme Court in a landmark judgment allowed passive euthanasia for Harish, who was a BTech student at Panjab University who fell from a fourth-floor balcony in 2013 and suffered severe head injuries.
He had been in a coma since, with artificial nutrition support and occasional oxygen support.
Passive euthanasia is the intentional act of letting a patient die by withholding or withdrawing life support or the treatment necessary to keep him alive.
Harish’s nutritional support was gradually withdrawn after he was admitted to the hospital, sources said on Tuesday.
After his death, his family is learnt to have donated his corneas and heart valves, which were retrieved by the hospital.
Harish’s family had said after the apex court judgment that withdrawal of artificial life support would not bring any personal benefit to the family, but in the larger public interest, the decision could help others facing similar situations.
His father, Ashok Rana, had said passive euthanasia would restore Harish’s dignity after years of irreversible suffering.
Pinki Virani, a journalist and activist who filed a petition for euthanasia to Aruna Shanbaug in 2011, thanked the doctors and nurses at AIIMS for “compassionately applying passive euthanasia”, and urged that one should let their family members know “if they would want to exercise this right for themselves”.
“May Harish Rana rest in peace. May his parents and his brother find a quiet peace of their own amid what has been a very long loss for them… I continue to be grateful to the Supreme Court for allowing the right to die with dignity in 2011… It’s a choice, and if they so choose, they can help the process by making their wishes pertaining to passive euthanasia known so that their final exit is free from guilt and trauma,” Virani told PTI.
The top court had rejected Virani’s plea made on behalf of Shanbaug, who remained bedridden in a vegetative state in a Mumbai hospital since a brutal sexual assault in November 1973.
The Mumbai nurse finally died of pneumonia in 2015.
In its March 11 judgement, the apex court had directed AIIMS-Delhi to ensure that life support is withdrawn with a tailored plan so that dignity is maintained.
A specialised medical team headed by Dr Seema Mishra was constituted to implement the process, the first in India.
The team comprised doctors from departments of neurosurgery, onco-anaesthesia and palliative medicine, and psychiatry.
The Supreme Court, in its March 11 judgment, allowed passive euthanasia for a person for the first time in the country.
Ruling on the long-discussed emotive issue, a bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and K V Viswanathan asked the Union government to consider bringing a comprehensive legislation on passive euthanasia.
The top court noted that Harish survived only through clinically administered nutrition via ‘percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy’ tubes, and medical boards had unanimously concluded that continuation of treatment would merely prolong biological existence without any possibility of recovery. (PTI)
