All the family members reached the hospital in his last hours. Karunanidhi was admitted to the intensive care unit of the hospital on July 28 following a dip in his blood pressure, which stabilised after medical intervention. Since then he was monitored continously by a team of specialists.

Dignitaries and leaders, including President Ram Nath Kovind Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu and Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu, Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu, Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and former PM HD Deve Gowda had visited the hospital and enquired about the veteran's health.

For the first time since Karunanidhi was hospitalised, the DMK patriarch's wife Dayalu Ammal visited him on July 6th.

DMK leaders and family members Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi, former Minister MK Alagiri, DMK working president MK Stalin, DMK senior leader Anbazhagan and A Raja were always by the DMK patriarch's side.

Karunanidhi has been not keeping well since October 2016 and recently underwent a procedure to change his tracheostomy tube, provided to help breathing.

Karunanidhi was born on June 3, 1924, in the village of Thirukuvalai, near Thiruvarur in Tanjore district, the granary of Tamil Nadu. His father Muthuvel was a scholar and a pandit, and his mother Anjugam.

The DMK supremo was first elected to the Tamil Nadu Assembly from Kulithalai in then undivided Tiruchirappalli in 1957. He has not lost a single election he has contested from there in his six-decades-long career, and was the Chief minister for Tamilnadu on five seperate occasions between (1969–71, 1971–76, 1989–91, 1996–2001 and 2006–2011).

Karunanidhi was also at the fore-front of the anti-hindu agitations in the early 60's. Karunanidhi assumed charge as the first president of the DMK party on July 27, 1969 and has been holding the post since then.