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Union minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who was undergoing treatment for a serious liver ailment, died at a city hospital on Tuesday.

Mr. Deshmukh, 67, died early this afternoon, a week after he was hospitalized in a critical condition, even as attempts were being made to find a donor for his liver transplant.

An attempt to harvest the liver from a brain-dead donor at a government hospital last night failed as the man died before doctors could operate on him, hospital sources said.

A team from Global Hospitals, where Mr. Deshmukh was admitted on August 6, had planned to retrieve the liver from the 31-year-old donor at the hospital, but he died, forcing them to look for another donor, the sources said.

Following this, the hospital said they were looking for a liver donor.

The former Maharashtra chief minister, who was serving as the Union minister for science and technology, had shown signs of improvement and been on and off the ventilator before being prepared for a transplant.

Mr. Deshmukh was brought to Chennai from Mumbai in an air ambulance in a critical condition and was under the care of a team of different specialists.