For 10 years, Ayatollah Ruolo Kmeni had shaped the fate of Iran.

But in his final 24 hours, the once powerful leader was reduced to a fragile patient fighting for every heartbeat.

While outside the hospital, the government quietly prepared for the moment that would shock millions of people across the country.

He was 86 years old at the time.

His health had been getting worse for years.

Doctors had already performed several medical procedures on him in the 1980s.

His body was weak and the stress of ruling a country through war and political conflict had taken its toll.

So by early June 1989, Kmeni was no longer staying in a regular residence.

He had been moved into a private medical facility in Thran where doctors could watch him around the clock.

The building had essentially been turned into a secure medical compound.

Guards from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps controlled the entrances.

Security checkpoints surrounded the area and only a very small list of people were allowed inside.

The doctor leading Kmeni’s treatment was Muhammad Reza Marandi, a well-known Iranian physician who had already treated many high-ranking figures in the government.

Mandi was working with a team of specialists that included surgeons, heart doctors, and anesthesiologists.

These doctors had been monitoring Kmeni for months because his health had been declining steadily.

The most serious problem at that moment was happening inside his digestive system.

Tests and medical observations showed that he was suffering from internal bleeding somewhere in his stomach or intestines.

For a young patient, doctors might have more time to study the problem and plan treatment carefully.

But for an 86year-old man with a weakened body, internal bleeding can turn deadly within hours.

The bleeding slowly drains blood from the body and can push the heart into shock.

Earlier medical reports had already suggested that the bleeding might be connected to a tumor somewhere in the digestive tract.

Some doctors suspected stomach cancer or a related intestinal cancer.

Although the exact diagnosis was complicated, by this stage, Kmeni’s body had already become extremely fragile, he’d lost weight, his energy was very low, and even small medical stress could push his organs toward failure.

On June 2nd, 1989, the situation suddenly became more serious.

Doctors monitoring him noticed that the bleeding appeared to be increasing.

His blood pressure began dropping, which is often the first sign that the body is losing too much blood internally.

At the same time, his pulse started becoming unstable.

Instead of a steady rhythm, the heartbeat began showing irregular patterns that worried the medical team.

For elderly patients, these two signs together can signal the beginning of a medical emergency.

Low blood pressure means the organs are not receiving enough oxygen and an unstable pulse means the heart is struggling to keep the body alive.

The doctors quickly realized they could not wait any longer.

They made the difficult decision to perform surgery.

Operating on an 86-year-old patient in weak condition is always risky.

The heart might fail during anesthesia.

The body might not survive the shock of surgery.

Infection and bleeding become much more dangerous in older patients.

But in this case, doing nothing was even more dangerous.

Without surgery to stop the bleeding, Kmeni might die within hours.

Inside the hospital, the atmosphere changed almost immediately.

Nurses rushed through hallways preparing the operating room.

Surgical instruments were sterilized and arranged carefully.

Special monitoring machines were brought in to track his heart, oxygen levels, and blood pressure during the procedure.

Doctors also prepared blood supplies for transfusions, knowing that Kmeni might lose significant blood during surgery and would need replacements quickly to keep his body functioning.

Meanwhile, the outside world had no idea how serious things had become.

Most ordinary Iranians were going about their daily routines without realizing that their country’s most powerful leader was lying inside a hospital preparing for emergency surgery.

Only a small circle of government officials had been quietly informed that the situation had become critical.

The operation finally began late on the night of June 2nd.

The surgical team gathered around the operating table as the anesthesiologists carefully prepared Kmeni for the procedure.

Because of his age and his fragile health, even the process of putting him under anesthesia had to be done slowly and carefully.

Too much medication could stop his heart, while too little could cause shock during surgery.

Every step required precision.

Once he was fully under the anesthesia, the surgeons began the operation by opening his abdomen to locate the source of the internal bleeding.

The medical team worked methodically, examining the stomach and surrounding areas of the digestive tract.

According to later medical reports, the bleeding appeared to be coming from a serious condition inside the digestive system.

Doctors suspected that the cause could be a tumor or severe ulceration that had damaged blood vessels in the stomach or intestines.

For younger patients, surgeons can sometimes move quickly during operations like this.

But in Kmeni’s case, speed was not an option.

His body could not handle sudden stress.

The surgeons had to move slowly and carefully, controlling every small action.

As the operation continued, the team tried to remove damaged tissue and stop the bleeding wherever it was occurring.

At the same time, nurses and anesthesiologists closely monitored Kmeni’s vital signs.

Machines tracked his heart rhythm, oxygen levels, and blood pressure every second.

For a period of time, the operation appeared to be working.

The surgeons managed to slow the bleeding and repair the most dangerous areas.

Eventually, they closed the surgical site, believing they had stabilized the immediate threat.

Kmeni was then moved out of the operating room and transferred into an intensive care unit where doctors could monitor him constantly.

Even though the surgery had technically succeeded in controlling the bleeding, the procedure had pushed his body to the edge of its limits.

Major surgery places enormous strain on the heart, lungs, and kidneys, especially in elderly patients.

After the surgery, his condition remained extremely fragile.

His heart rate was unstable.

His blood pressure stayed low and his body showed signs of exhaustion from the long medical battle it had just gone through.

As June 2nd slowly turned into the early hours of June 3rd, the hospital became a quiet place of tension.

Kmeni drifted in and out of consciousness during the night.

Sometimes he appeared briefly aware of his surroundings, but most of the time he remained extremely weak and exhausted.

At first, the situation looked somewhat stable, but then Kmeni’s heart started showing signs of stress.

Instead of maintaining a steady rhythm, his pulse began to fluctuate.

The heartbeats became irregular, sometimes speeding up and then slowing down again.

This kind of rhythm disturbance can be extremely dangerous because it means the heart is struggling to pump blood properly through the body.

The doctors reacted immediately.

Medications were administered through introvenous lines in an attempt to stabilize the heart rhythm.

Nurses adjusted the equipment connected to him, increasing oxygen support and closely monitoring the numbers appearing on the screens.

Despite these efforts, the situation continued getting worse.

The irregular heartbeat did not completely stabilize, and the doctors began to see additional signs that his body was weakening further.

His kidneys showed reduced activity, a sign that the organs were no longer receiving enough blood flow.

His breathing became more shallow.

The combination of surgery, age, and internal illness was slowly overwhelming his body’s ability to recover.

Then, sometime in the morning hours of June 3rd, the monitors suddenly began showing alarming signals.

The steady rhythm on the screen changed into chaotic spikes and irregular lines.

His heart was no longer beating properly.

Within seconds, the pattern on the monitor showed something even worse.

The electrical activity of the heart dropped dramatically, meaning the organ had stopped pumping blood effectively through the body.

This was the first cardiac arrest.

The medical team reacted instantly.

Doctors rushed to the bedside and began emergency resuscitation procedures.

Nurses prepared injections while other doctors began performing advanced life support techniques.

Powerful medications were pushed into his bloodstream through intravenous lines.

These drugs were designed to stimulate the heart and force it back into a normal rhythm.

At the same time, doctors used defibrillation equipment and other emergency methods used in intensive care units to try to restart the heart’s electrical system.

These procedures are aggressive and physically demanding, especially for an elderly patient.

But there was no alternative.

For a tense period inside that hospital room, the outcome was uncertain.

Then finally, the heart monitor showed a small improvement.

For a moment, the doctors managed to bring him back, but no one in the room felt relieved.

The doctors knew exactly what was happening.

They were buying time, not saving his life.

After the first cardiac arrest in the morning, Kmeni remained in an extremely fragile condition.

Throughout the afternoon, doctors monitored the machines beside his bed as the numbers slowly worsened.

Then, another collapse appeared on the monitors.

The heart rhythm suddenly weakened again, far worse than before.

The electrical signals that control the heartbeat became chaotic and unstable.

Within seconds, the monitor displayed the terrifying pattern doctors recognized immediately.

Kmeni’s heart had gone into cardiac arrest again.

This time, the situation was even more severe than the first collapse.

Doctors continued their efforts for a period of time, refusing to give up immediately, but eventually it became clear that the heart would not recover.

At approximately 10:20 p.

m.

on the night of June 3rd, 1989, the doctors officially declared Roa Kmeni dead.

The information was immediately passed to the highest levels of the Iranian government.

Senior political leaders were informed through secure communication channels and emergency procedures that had been quietly prepared in advance were now put into motion.

The government understood that this was one of the most sensitive moments in the history of the Islamic Republic.

The news could not simply leak out slowly.

Instead, the government decided to announce it officially through national broadcasting.

Within hours, the announcement was delivered through Iranian state television and radio networks.

The message spread across the country almost instantly.

families sitting in their homes, workers in offices, and travelers listening to radios, all heard the same news at nearly the same moment.

In many cities, supporters of the revolution immediately began gathering in public spaces.

Some people cried openly when they heard the announcement.

Others walked into the streets trying to reach government buildings, mosques, or public squares where crowds were forming.

Inside Tan, the reaction was especially dramatic.

Thousands of people began moving toward locations connected to the government, including the hospital where Kmeni had died and other official sites linked to the revolutionary leadership.

Many people mourned openly, believing they had lost the man who had stood up against the monarchy and foreign influence in Iran.

At the same time, the country’s leadership moved very quickly to secure political stability.

The Islamic Republic had been built around Kmani’s authority and without him the system needed a clear successor to prevent confusion or power struggles inside the government.

Iran’s constitution gave that responsibility to a powerful clerical body called the Assembly of Experts.

This organization consisted of senior Islamic scholars and religious authorities who were elected but also heavily connected to the religious establishment.

Their job was to choose and supervise the supreme leader.

In theory, the process was clear.

But in reality, the decision was complicated because Kmeni had been a unique figure.

He was not only a religious scholar, but the symbol of the revolution itself.

Finding someone with the same authority was nearly impossible.

Within hours of his death, the assembly of experts gathered in an emergency meeting in Tehran.

The members knew that time was critical.

Iran had only ended the devastating Iran Iraq war the previous year.

A conflict that had killed hundreds of thousands of people and left the country economically damaged.

Any sign of political instability at the top of the government could create serious problems both inside the country and abroad.

The leadership needed to show that the Islamic Republic still had control.

During the meeting, several powerful clerics were discussed as possible successors.

One of the names that had previously been considered was Hussein Ali Montazeri.

Montazeri had once been publicly identified as the likely successor to Kmeni.

However, only a few months earlier, he had been removed from that position after serious disagreements with the leadership.

Montazeri had criticized certain government policies, including the mass executions of political prisoners in 1988, and this criticism damaged his standing among powerful figures in the government.

By the time Kmeni died, Montazeri was no longer seen as a viable option.

Other senior religious scholars were also mentioned.

Some members of the assembly even discussed the possibility of creating a leadership council instead of a single supreme leader, which would have meant several clerics sharing the authority that Kmeni had once held alone.

But many members believed that the country needed a clear central leader rather than a divided structure.

Eventually, attention focused on Ali Kam.

At that time, Kamune was serving as the president of Iran and had been a loyal supporter of Kmeni since the early revolutionary years.

He had also survived an assassination attempt in 1981 that left his right arm partially paralyzed, which had increased his reputation among revolutionary supporters.

Politically, he had strong connections with many key figures in the Iranian leadership, including the powerful parliamentary leader Akbar Hashemi Raf Sanjani.

However, Kam was not widely considered the most senior religious scholar in Iran.

In traditional Shiite religious hierarchy, the position of supreme leader was expected to be held by a highranking cleric known as a Marja, a scholar recognized as a top authority in Islamic law.

At that time, Kamune did not hold that level of religious rank.

Despite this, many members of the assembly believed he was politically capable and trusted by the revolutionary establishment.

During the intense discussions inside the assembly of experts, Raf Sanjani reportedly played a key role by arguing that Kamune had the support necessary to lead the country during a sensitive transition.

Eventually, the members moved toward a vote.

The assembly voted to appoint Ali Kamune as the new supreme leader of Iran.

This decision was historic.

It meant that a relatively younger political cleric would inherit the most powerful position in the Islamic Republic.

In the months that followed, constitutional changes were made that adjusted the qualifications required for the Supreme Leader, making it easier for Commune to hold the position.

The decision made during that emergency meeting would shape Iran for decades.

Kam went on to lead the country through multiple political crises, international confrontations, and major changes inside the Middle East.

But while the political leadership inside Iran was focused on securing the future of the government, something massive was unfolding outside.

Across the country, millions of ordinary Iranians were preparing to say goodbye to the man who had changed their nation forever.

The funeral of Rola Kmeni took place on June 6th, 1989, only 3 days after his death.

What happened that day in Tan quickly turned into one of the most extraordinary and chaotic funerals in modern history.

From early morning, enormous crowds began pouring into the city.

People arrived by buses, trucks, private cars, and even on foot from nearby areas.

Many had traveled for hours or even days from distant towns and villages across Iran.

The government had announced that the public would be allowed to participate in the funeral ceremonies and millions responded.

Estimates of the crowd size vary, but many reports placed the number at around 10 million people.

Some observers believed that number might have been even higher.

For comparison, that meant roughly one out of every six Iranians alive at the time had traveled to Tan for the funeral.

The streets, highways, and open areas around the city became packed with people.

People cried openly in the streets, beating their chests in traditional morning rituals.

Others held pictures of Kmeni above their heads while shouting prayers and slogans connected to the revolution.

When the funeral process began, the crowd surged forward toward the coffin carrying Kmeni’s body.

The coffin was wrapped in a traditional burial cloth as part of Islamic funeral customs.

Security forces tried to maintain order, but the sheer size of the crowd made control extremely difficult.

Many people desperately wanted to get close to the coffin.

Some believed touching it would bring religious blessing.

Others wanted to take a small piece of the burial cloth as a sacred souvenir.

This belief created intense pressure around the procession as thousands of mourners pushed forward at the same time.

Very quickly, the situation began to spiral out of control.

The crowds surged toward the coffin with such force that the security guards carrying it struggled to keep their balance.

The pressure from the surrounding masses grew stronger as more people pushed forward trying to reach the body.

Then the coffin fell.

For a brief moment, the body of Kmeni was exposed in front of the massive crowd.

Some people attempted to grab pieces of the burial cloth while others surged forward even harder, creating an extremely dangerous situation.

Security personnel and guards rushed in immediately to recover the body and pull it away from the crushing crowd.

Realizing that the situation had become impossible to control in the ground, authorities quickly decided to remove the body from the area by helicopter to prevent further chaos.

The burial ceremony had to be postponed because the crowd was simply too large and emotional to manage safely.

Later, once security forces managed to reorganize the situation, the burial was finally completed.

Kmeni was laid to rest at a newly constructed shrine located south of Tehran.

The site would later grow into a massive religious complex visited by millions of people each year.

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