On 15 August 2008, Kardam and his wife were involved in a serious car wreck in
El Molar, near
Madrid. Prince Kardam was taken by helicopter to the Doce de Octubre Hospital, while his wife was taken to the La Paz Hospital. The car they were in crashed into a tree, then turned over just ten metres away from a nearby house. Kardam suffered severe
brain-skull trauma and severe injuries to his hands, while his wife suffered a broken elbow, broken ribs and a collapsed lung. She was treated and released from the hospital on 4 September. Galya Dicheva, a spokeswoman for the
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha family, confirmed the information about the car wreck and explained that Kardam had undergone surgery in the evening following the wreck. According to doctors at the Doce de Octubre Hospital, Kardam was being kept in an
induced coma in August, his hands were paralysed, and reports mentioned that he had lost two fingers. A Bulgarian news agency reported that he was released from the hospital in January 2009, was able to stand and communicate, and was recovering at home. About a year after his release from hospital, however, he suffered a critical setback and was re-hospitalised. He remained in a coma until his death from a
lung infection in a hospital in Madrid on 7 April 2015. After an Eastern Orthodox funeral, he was buried at
Saint Isidore Cemetery in Madrid. In May 2010, Bulgarian authorities issued a
summons to the comatose Kardam over issues relating to the management of property returned to him, to his father and to his aunt (as heirs to Kings Ferdinand and Boris III) by the post-communist government. Former King and Prime Minister Simeon II and his sister Princess Maria Louisa objected to the summons on the grounds that Kardam was incapacitated. On 6 April 2024 his body was reburied in
Vrana Palace. ==References==