A member of the Dutch royal family has died 18 months after suffering massive brain injuries when he was buried by an avalanche.
Prince Johan Friso died in The Hague after being in a coma since February last year following a skiing accident. He never regained consciousness.
The City of London financier, 44, was buried for 25 minutes by an avalanche while skiing off-piste in Lech, Austria.
His wife Princess Mabel is said to have spent her 45th birthday on Sunday at his bedside. He died this morning (August 12).
The government said: "Prince Friso died from complications that arose as a consequence of the brain damage caused by oxygen deprivation following his accident.”
The BBC reported that his brother King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima were on their way home from a holiday in Greece.
He had been skiing with friends in Lech when the avalanche struck. An emergency beeper he had on allowed rescuers to find him but it took some time to revive him and he suffered "massive" brain damage.
Prince Friso is the second son of Queen Beatrix who abdicated in April but is not in line to the throne since marrying in 2004 without the government's permission.
He renounced his right to the Dutch throne when he married a commoner whose past was considered too racy for her to become a member of the Dutch royal house, according to Reuters.
After being treated in Innsbruck following the accident, Prince Friso was taken to a hospital in London where he lived with his wife and two daughters, Emma aged eight and seven-year-old Zaria.
A source told Reuters that his mother or one of his brothers had visited him in hospital every week since the accident. He was taken back to The Hague last week.
