CHENNAI: Popular actor and comedian Vivekh’s 13-year-old son, Prasanna Kumar, passed away late Thursday afternoon after a month-long battle with a suspected case of dengue and brain stem dysfunction.
According to official sources, Prasanna was hospitalised almost a month earlier with high fever and had been on treatment for the same. The case was so acute that he had to be put on ventilator support several times. The treatment failed eventually and Prasanna succumbed to the viral fever at 4.25 pm on Thursday.
“The child was suffering with acute case of dengue fever. While on treatment, he also suffered from brain stem dysfunction. All these days, he was on and off ventilator support. On Thursday afternoon, he passed away without responding to treatment,” said a reliable source.
The Chennai Corporation, however, is denying that Prasanna had died of dengue. A senior Health officer of the civic body told Express that Prasanna had undergone brain surgery for a chronic cerebral problem. “That he was suffering from a case of dengue is ruled out,” he said while adding, “the hospital had also not notified us of a dengue case. However, we have asked for the medical reports of the boy for further investigation and we will be receiving them on Friday.”
Prasanna is survived by Vivekh, mother Arul Selvi and two sisters — Amrithanandhini and Tejaswini. Members of the film fraternity have sent condolence messages to the family.