The night of Tuesday, July 30, 2024 was an effervescent one at the 80th birthday party of Mrs Stella Okoli, Chief EXecutive Officer (CEO) of Emzor Pharmaceuticals in Lagos. Music icon, Onyeka Onwenu, fondly called ‘Elegant Stallion’ by the media for her graceful poise, was on stage adding glamour to the boisterous night.
She was her bubbly self as she performed. Although at 72, age had expectedly slowed down her usual ebullience, but she betrayed no inkling of any illness as she thrilled the enthralled audience with her usually mellifluous voice and electrifying performance.
A thunderous ovation trailed her as she made for her seat after her performance. No sooner did she return to her seat, however, than she slumped. She was immediately rushed to the Reddington Hospital in Victoria Island, Lagos, where the medical personnel battled in vain to revive her. She was pronounced dead!
The sudden, tragic passing of the trained-journalist-turned music maestro aptly captures a troubling trend. The frequency at which outwardly healthy and ebullient people, including very important personalities(VIPs), now suddenly slump and die is alarming. It is fast becoming an epidemic. Disturbing obituaries from such incidents now inundate the media, online and offline, every now and then.
The same year, 2024, Essien Etop Andrew, Deputy Comptroller in charge of revenue at the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), had a date with the Public Account Committee of the House of Representatives in Abuja.
He made it and strolled smartly into the chambers, betraying no sign of any trouble with his health. But the officer collapsed and died while responding to questions from the lawmakers.
Dr. Cairo Ojougboh was a popular politician and former Nigerian federal legislator from Delta State. He looked healthy and chatted excitedly away also some time in 2024, as he watched the AFCON semi-final football match between Nigeria and South Africa with some others. But he suddenly slumped and died at a point during the match.
A Cross River State lawmaker, Steven Ukpukpen, was also reported to have slumped and died during an early morning workout in 2018.
Recently, a video went viral online showing a young lady in an office environment, effusively extolling her boss for motivating her to record an unexpected stellar accomplishment in her career. Her boss was still responding to the compliment when the lady suddenly slumped on her seat and gave up the ghost.
There was also the heart-rending case of a Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL) player, Chineme Martins, who slumped and died while playing in a league match between his club, Nasarawa United, and Katsina United, in the NPFL match Day 23 game at the Lafia City Stadium, Nassarawa State.
These clearly avoidable tragic deaths, among numerous others, have become a serious bother. Hardly does a day pass now without recording somebody collapsing and dying, either immediately or shortly at the hospital, without any warning sign(s).
What could make someone to just slump and irredeemably give up the ghost without any prior or visible sign of illness, what is medically termed as ‘sudden death syndrome’ (SDS)?
Health experts have adopted the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) definition of SDS as “sudden, unexpected death from natural causes witnessed within one hour of symptom onset”. If not witnessed, death occurring within 24 hours of someone seen alive and symptom-free is also considered SDS.
According to health experts, sudden cardiac death (SCD) or sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), which describes death caused by loss of heart function, occurring within one hour of any cardiovascular (connected with the heart and blood vessels) cause, is the commonest cause of SDS.
Cardiac arrest is said to leave the victim without enough blood flow to the brain. This can make him or her unconscious in just seconds. Sudden cardiac death can happen in a few minutes.
According to experts, the rising incidence of sudden, untimely deaths through collapse is primarily driven by undiagnosed or poorly managed cardiovascular conditions, exacerbated by modern lifestyle pressures. These occurrences often appear as “sudden,” but experts imply that they are usually the culmination of chronic, underlying issues, with over 70% of sudden deaths linked to cardiovascular causes.
Increased prevalence of slump-and-die incidents, experts say, can be linked to some of the following: Underlying cardiac conditions, which are often undiagnosed; coronary artery disease (CAD). This is identified as the leading cause of SCD in adults over 35, where plaque buildup blocks blood flow to the heart.
Others include heart muscle disease (Cardiomyopathy); other conditions like hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), where the heart muscle becomes abnormally thick, are said to be a leading cause of sudden death in young people and athletes.
There are also what experts call the “silent killer” lifestyles such as undiagnosed hypertension (High blood pressure often has no symptoms but silently weakens the heart and damages vessels); sedentary lifestyle and obesity (Lack of physical activities combined with obesity significantly increases the risk of structural heart damage).
They also include chronic stress and poor sleep (High-stress levels and lack of sleep trigger adrenaline, which can cause heart rates to spike and blood vessels to narrow, leading to spasms or cardiac arrest); substance abuse such as smoking, alcohol abuse, and the use of illicit drugs (cocaine, opioids etc.), which are significant contributors to sudden cardiac failure in younger populations.
There are also misinterpreted symptoms and lifestyles that suggest insouciance or non- chalance, characterized by ignoring warning signs. Many people often ignore prodromal symptoms, signs such as fatigue, mild chest pain, palpitations, or fainting that appear in the days or weeks before a fatal event.
Many individuals do not undergo regular medical checkups such as screenings for blood pressure, blood sugar, or cholesterol. Most Nigerians are too engrossed in everyday hustlings to bother about the need to go for periodic body checks, thus missing the chance to manage risks early.
Overexertion is when inactive people suddenly engage in extreme, strenuous exercises, which expose them to a higher risk of triggering an underlying, undetected condition that can cause a sudden collapse.
While cardiac causes are the dominant issues, sudden collapse can also be caused by non-cardiac factors. Some of these include what experts call pulmonary embolism, which occurs when a blood clot blocks a pulmonary artery; brain haemorrhage/stroke, which is a rupture or blockage of vessels in the brain; severe infections(Sepsis), a rapid, overwhelming body response to infection.
How can the risk of sudden cardiac death be reduced? Health experts recommend some of the following measures:
*Keeping one’s regular follow-up appointments with the healthcare provider.
*Making lifestyle changes such as getting to a weight that’s healthy for one.
*Getting an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) if a person’s healthcare provider recommends it.
*Having genetic testing (if one’s provider recommends it) to look for potential causes of sudden cardiac death.
*Competitive athletes are particularly advised to undergo prescreening annually for a heart condition, which should include an evaluation of their personal and family history (updated each year) and a physical examination.
Generally, experts recommend that maintaining a consistent healthy lifestyle and the effective control of risk factors remain the best insurance against SDS. Lack of good quality sleep, for instance,is now being increasingly recognised as an important risk factor.
Managing one’s stress level is a lifestyle approach highly recommended, as prolonged stress, coupled with emotional stress and tension, according to experts, can cause the body to produce adrenaline. The heart, in turn, pumps faster and harder, and the blood vessels may also narrow, leading to a probable fatal consequence.
It is in the area of stress management that many Nigerians are found wanting. A lot of people live life as if tomorrow is promised. They hardly rest. They hustle from morning till late in the night, forgetting that only the living can hustle and eat from the fruits of his or her labour.
Of course, we understand that the times are hard. Costs of living are now so demanding that one has to keep impossible schedules to run multiple income streams to cope. Yet, we admonish that people should strike a balance, find time to rest in between jobs and go for medical checkups from time to time to avoid imperiling our health.
A medical expert captures the typical careless approach to stress succinctly: “The last time I checked, I realised that people no longer give time for themselves. No time to rest, due to the nature of their jobs and other activities. You will see a lot of people waking up as early as 3am for work, coming back late in the night. This is rampant in the country today.
“A lot of people don’t know how to manage stress. The situation on the road, activities at work, all these contribute to stress. People know how to endure pains and headache. These are some of the things many people no longer pay attention to. By the time the whole issue piles up, it becomes what we call stress. When one is stressed without proper medical attention, it kills”.
