Krishna Prasad Bhattarai passes away

KATHMANDU, March 4: The last surviving founding leader of Nepali Congress (NC) and former Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai died at the Norvic International Hospital Friday night.

The doctors pronounced him dead at 11:26 pm. "He died of cardiac arrest," Executive Director and Consultant Cardiologist at the hospital Dr Bharat Rawat said. He had renal shutdown and doctors had given up almost all hope of saving him.

OBITUARY : PASSING OF A STATESMAN-SAINT

President Dr Ram Baran Yadav had reached the hospital at around 10 in the evening after hearing of Bhattarai´s terminal condition.

A team of doctors decided to do away with artificial means and try natural treatment on the octogenarian leader after a meeting Friday morning. They took out the bipap machine being used to give him oxygen and were waiting for his natural death.

He had been breathing normally maintaining oxygen saturation of above 90% and also been maintaining a steady heart beat on his own after doctors took out the bipap machine. But he had made just 18 ml of urine in the past 24 hours despite medication to induce urination.

Bhattarai´s condition had deteriorated significantly on Wednesday and he had slipped into a coma. He had low oxygen levels with kidney, lungs and heart complications. His cerebral function was also very low with low oxygen and blood flow to the brain.

He had not eaten anything for six days and was being fed through a tube inserted in the stomach via the nose while oxygen was being given through a bipap machine till Friday morning.

His attendants claimed Bhattarai was at his witty best with his trademark humor till Tuesday evening. "He had teased me saying I looked very handsome and joked with a nurse who invited him to her wedding scheduled a few days later," Nepali Congress cadre Ram Hari Khatiwada said.

Bhattarai was admitted at the hospital 21 days ago with swelling of feet and weakness and abnormal blood reports. He was shifted to the Coronary Care Unit on February 16 after his breathing became heavy and developed fever. A team of Dr Rawat, Dr Pandey, Dr Ramesh Chokhani, Dr Bijendra Srivastav, Dr Jay Prakash Jaiswal and Dr Rishi Kafle is involved in his treatment.

He had heart and lungs problems for 15 years and kidney problem for 10 years.

"He was witty, humorous, intelligent, food-loving, always smiling and non-complaining," Dr Rawat, who has been treating him for the past 12 years, said.
His body was taken to his Ashram in Bandegaun, Lalitpur after midnight.

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