Harish Rana, first to be allowed passive euthanasia in India, dies at AIIMS

HArish genus rana, India's number one individual to be allowed peaceful mercy killing, passed away on Tuesday AIIMS-Delhi after more than 13 years in coma after the completion of medical procedures.Rana was shifted from his Ghaziabad home to the palliative care unit at Dr BR Ambedkar Institute Rotary Cancer Hospital at the AIIMS on March 14. He passed away at 4:10pm on Tuesday at the Delhi hospital, officials said.The process of passive euthanasia for 32-year old Harish Rana, whose "right to die" was upheld by the Supreme Court earlier this month, began last week and was expected to take several days given the multiple stages involved, including gradually withholding or withdrawing the nutritional support.Rana, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad, has been in coma since suffering from a catastrophic head injury after falling from the fourth floor of his paying guest accommodation in 2013, when he was an engineer student in Chandigarh.In its first ever order allowing passive euthanasia, the Supreme Court on March 11 permitted the withdrawal of artificial life support to Rana.The passive euthanasia processDr Sushma Bhatnagar, former AIIMS chief and professor of onco anaesthesia and palliative medicine, had said the case exemplifies palliative care focused on reducing prolonged suffering when recovery is no longer possible.“As a principle of palliative care, external support that prolongs suffering in irreversible medical conditions may be withheld or withdrawn after all medical approvals, thereby allowing nature to take its course,” an earlier HT report quoted Dr Bhatnagar as saying.The process generally involves withholding or withdrawing the nutritional support gradually while ensuring adequate pain relief.The patient is given palliative sedation so that he or she is not in distress. Life support measures such as artificial nutrition, oxygen and medications are slowly withdrawn, Dr Bhatnagar had said.In Harish's case, sources had said the entire process could take two to three weeks to complete, according to a PTI news agency report.The stages also included obtaining approval from two medical boards has been, a process that has been initiated at AIIMS in accordance with Indian law governing living wills and passive euthanasia. These boards were to certify that the patient meets necessary criteria before life support can be withdrawn, according to the earlier HT report.All medical assessments were to be carried out by the hospital’s medical board constituted for the case, the hospital had said.