BANGKOK: Princess Bajrakitiyabha, the eldest daughter of Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn, died at the age of 47 after nearly four years in a coma, the royal palace said in a statement on Friday.
Bajrakitiyabha was taken to hospital in December 2022 after she collapsed from a heart condition and other infections. She has been in a coma ever since.
On May 21, her medical condition worsened as a result of multiple infections in several organs, with physicians unable to contain her irregular heart rate.
After years of treatment, physicians discovered a stomach infection that led to inflammation in her intestines in April, causing her blood pressure to fall and her heartbeat to become irregular.
Educated in Britain, the United States and Thailand, Bajrakitiyabha held several positions with the United Nations and campaigned for better treatment of women in prisons.
Known in Thailand as “Princess Bha”, the 47-year-old was seen as close to her father, and was appointed to a senior role in his bodyguard command a year before her hospitalisation.
Last year, Thailand’s influential Queen Mother died at the age of 93.
