Family Bids Farewell Before Life Support Withdrawal

In a poignant farewell that captured the nation's attention, the family of Harish Rana gathered at their home in Sahibabad, Ghaziabad, on March 13, 2026, to bid goodbye to their 32-year-old son, who has remained in a vegetative state since a 2013 accident. Accompanied by spiritual leader Sister Kumari Lovely Didi from the Brahma Kumaris organization, relatives offered prayers and a final blessing before transporting Rana to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi, where doctors began the process of withdrawing life-sustaining treatment following a Supreme Court order.

Rana's ordeal began in August 2013, when he fell from the fourth floor of his paying guest accommodation in Chandigarh while studying engineering at Panjab University. The incident caused severe head injuries, resulting in irreversible brain damage. Medical assessments confirmed he entered a permanent vegetative state, with no cognitive awareness or meaningful responses, relying entirely on feeding tubes and constant care for survival. Over the next 13 years, his parents, Ashok and Nirmala Rana, tended to him tirelessly, managing complications from prolonged immobility, such as bedsores, while facing...