Family members of Gandham Kiran were preparing for his funeral after the 18-year-old was declared brain dead following a coma for more than a week.The mother of the college student from Pillalamarri village of Telangana’s Suryapet district noticed tears flowing from the corners of his eyes as she was mourning the passing away of her son.“I was shocked and alerted my relatives, who immediately called a local medical practitioner. He told us that my son’s pulse was still beating and appreciated us for not removing the ventilator,” Kiran’s mother Saidamma said while speaking to the Hindustan Times.The villagers took the boy to the Suryapet hospital again where doctors treated Kiran in consultation with medical experts from Hyderabad.“Within three days, Kiran came to senses and started talking to us, albeit in a low tone. He was discharged on Sunday and we are continuing the treatment as per the doctors’ advice,” Saidamma said.Kiran was admitted to a government hospital on June 26 with complaints of high fever and vomiting and the doctors diagnosed him as suffering from severe hepatitis.“Kiran’s condition turned critical on June 28 and following the doctors’ advice, we shifted him to a corporate hospital in Hyderabad. There, he slipped into a coma and on July 3, the doctors told us that my son is brain-dead and there were no chances of his survival,” Saidamma said.Though doctors suggested that Kiran’s life support should be removed and his body taken home, Saidamma refused.“I wanted my son to breathe his last at our place in the village. So, we brought him home along with the life-support system late in the evening,” she said.As Saidamma returned home with Kiran in a vegetative state, her relatives started making preparations for his funeral. They put up a banner paying homage to Kiran, erected a tent and arranged firewood and other material for the funeral.“All the friends and relatives gathered at my house to pay condolences all through the night,” Saidamma recalled.Saidamma, whose husband Upender died of ill-health in 2005, is an agriculture labourer. Apart from Kiran, her other son Satish is the final year of college.
