A Consultant Cardiologist, Dr Ramon Moronkola, says that underlying untreated cardiovascular health conditions can trigger causes that can lead to the sudden death of an individual.
Moronkola, who works with the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), made the assertion in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Lagos, while reacting to the news of some Nigerians who passed on while watching the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).
NAN reports that no fewer than four persons reportedly died on Wednesday night while watching the semi-final match between the Super Eagles of Nigeria and Bafana Bafana of South Africa, in the ongoing AFCON, in Cote D’Ivoire.
They include a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC), Dr Cairo Ojougboh; Deputy Bursar, Kwara State University, Malete, Ayuba Abdullahi, and a corps member serving in Adamawa State, identified as Samuel.
Anambra-born businessman, Osondu Nwoye, based in Cote d’Ivoire, was also reported to have collapsed inside the stadium, while watching the match and died later in hospital
NAN also reports that the Super Eagles won the match 4—2, in a penalty shoot-out.
Moronkola said that sudden emotional surge either extreme excitement or sadness could put a lot of pressure on the cardiovascular system of an individual.
According to him, if this individual have no underlying morbidity – that’s, the heart is fine, the vessels are okay; usually it doesn’t cause much problem, but in a situation where the individual already has some malfunctions in the system, it can result to sudden cardiac attack.
“There are situations where people die suddenly during emotional surge, because that’s definitely what happened. In that situation, it can happen when an individual is extremely happy or grieved.
“Similarly, during football match, people are really tensed, there are a lot of emotional commitment/assertion; this may put a lot of pressure on individual’s cardiovascular system.
“If such individual has no underlying health conditions, it usually doesn’t cause problem, but in a situation that such individual has underlying cardiovascular disease, maybe the person is hypertensive or diabetic and he doesn’t or he knows, but not managing it well.
“With the underlying cardiovascular diseases and the person is exposed to emotional surge, he/she can develop heart attack or heart failure and die,” he said.
The cardiologist, therefore, advised that people should develop the habit of going for regular medical checkup in order to identify and treat any underlying health conditions that might cause problem or lead to death.