KATHMANDU: Former Crown Prince Paras Shah, who suffers from heart condition and survived a massive cardiac arrest two years ago, has been admitted to the Thapathali-based Norvic International Hospital on Sunday.

An Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator (ICD), a special device powered by battery that helps treat irregular heartbeats called arrhythmias, was successfully placed in his heart after an invasive procedure at the hospital's cath lab.

Dr Bharat Rawat and Dr Sujeev Raj Bhandari at the hospital carried out the procedure.

The ICD is implanted in people with heart complications and who are at high risk of sudden cardiac death, according to medical literature.

Shah will be kept at the Cardiac Care Unit (CCU) of the hospital for 24 hours, according to a hospital source. He shall remain in the hospital for at least two more days and the doctors will decide whether to discharge him after assessing his condition.

He was arrested and jailed on charge of possessing marijuana in Thailand earlier this year. However, a local court in March ordered the Thai authorities to release him after the Embassy of Nepal in Bangkok acknowledged in writing that Shah was Nepal's former crown prince.

The order allowed him to face trial from outside the jail.

Shah, however, was deported to Nepal in the first week of April after it was discovered that his passport had expired.

(By Keshav P. Koirala)

What is Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator

An Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator (ICD) is a device that detects any life-threatening, rapid heartbeat.

If such a heartbeat, called an arrhythmia, occurs, the ICD quickly sends an electrical shock to the heart to change the rhythm back to normal.

This is called defibrillation.

(Source: NIH, MedlinePlus)