CHENNAI: Union minister and former Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh , who has been battling liver cancer in a city hospital, died here on Tuesday afternoon. He was 67.

Having registered with the Tamil Nadu organ registry for a liver and a kidney, Vilasrao's case was cleared as a 'super ultra emergency'. He was to receive the organs from a 31-year-old man who was declared brain dead at the Government General Hospital, Chennai on Monday afternoon, but the prospective donor suffered a cardiac arrest in the early hours of Tuesday before his organs could be harvested. Two more set of organs were available by Tuesday morning, one from the General Hospital, Chennai, where a 20-year-old woman was declared brain dead, and another from Hinduja Hospital, Mumbai. But transplant surgeons at Global Hospitals found Vilasrao's condition was too unstable to undergo the procedure. "His condition was getting worse from early morning," said a treating doctor. "Though a transplant was the only option, the chances of his surviving the long and complex procedure looked bleak."

Vilasrao Deshmukh's health condition has been see-sawing since he was brought to Chennai last Tuesday by an air ambulance. On Saturday, doctors said his condition was stable. Since his other organs stood the risk of failing, and doctors had to prevent further infection, he was moved from the general ICU to an isolated unit on Saturday. The same day his name was registered with the TN organ registry which allots cadaver organs for transplant.

His actor son Riteish Deshmukh was registered with the authorities as a part-liver donor, but doctors said Vilasrao Deshmukh needed a full liver, which meant they had to get the organ from a brain-dead person. If a kidney was available, doctors said, they would transplant that too, since his kidneys had also failed.

A dual transplant looked likely on Monday after the family of the 31-year-old brain-dead man at Chennai GH agreed to donate his organs. A team of doctors from Global Hospitals reached GH, but because of some procedural delays, the organs could not be harvested. In the mean time, the prospective donor suffered a cardiac arrest, making it impossible for the doctors to retrieve and use the liver and kidney. On Tuesday, the transplant surgeons were presented with two opportunities of organs, from Mumbai and the Chennai GH, but before they could harvest the organs, Vilasrao Deshmukh's condition worsened by Tuesday afternoon and he breathed his last.

Cremation tomorrow

Union science and technology minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who passed away in Chennai this afternoon, will be cremated at his native Babhalgaon village in Latur district on Wednesday, family sources said.

The mortal remains of the departed leader will be brought to Latur tomorrow and kept at his house in Babhalgaon from 9 am to 3 pm for people to pay their last respects, his brother Dilip Deshmukh, said.

The funeral procession will start at 3 pm and last rites would be performed at 4 pm, he said.