CPN-Maoist Centre Chair and former prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s only son, Prakash Dahal, died of sudden cardiac arrest this morning. He was 36.
Dr JP Jaiswal, cardiologist at Norvic International Hospital, said during a press conference organised by the hospital that Prakash Dahal had died around three hours before he was brought to the hospital.
Prakash’s two aides had rushed him to the hospital at 5:50am.
Dr Jaiswal said, “There was no sign of life when he was brought to the hospital. His body had stiffened and the pulse was absent. His eyes didn’t react to light and there were no reflexes in his legs. When we did electrocardiogram there was a flat line.”
Doctors pronounced him dead at 5:59am.
Tashi Lakpa Sherpa, one of Prakash’s close friends, told THT that Dahal was on cholesterol medication for some time. The hospital source confirmed that Dahal had visited the hospital for regular check-up one-and-a-half months ago and was taking medicines for high cholesterol.
Dahal’s final rites took place at Pashupati Aryaghat without an autopsy. “There were no injury marks on his body and since he died of sudden cardiac arrest, there was no need
for an autopsy,” said Dr Jaiswal. Prakash is survived by two wives and two sons.
Pushpa Kamal Dahal who was in Birtamode, Jhapa, campaigning for federal and provincial elections, rushed to Kathmandu after learning of his son’s death.
Before visiting the hospital Dahal went to his residence in Lazimpat to meet his wife Sita Dahal, who fell ill after her son’s death.
Prakash’s second wife, Bina Magar, ran to the emergency ward of the hospital crying inconsolably. His first wife, Srijana Tripathi, who flew to Kathmandu from Pokhara, fainted
at the hospital after seeing her husband dead.
