In a tragic incident, a 16-year-old boy, Furkhan Qureshi, died after of cardiac arrest, allegedly after playing PUBG for six hours. His doctors suspect the reason to be a cardiac arrest. Furkhan was a class 12 student from Neemuch town of Madhya Pradesh.
The family recalls that just before collapsing, the deceased was furious because of the game and ended up shouting at the other players.
According to an ANI report, the boy was brought to the hospital and pronounced dead on arrival. Cardiologist Dr Ashok Jain from the hospital, said that they had attempted to revive him using electric shock, but they failed in their in their attempts, adding,
The excitement of the game might have caused a surge in adrenaline causing cardiac arrest. I appeal children to stay away from such games as excitement could cause cardiac arrest.
According to a report in Hindustan Times, Furkan’s family said that he was a swimmer, and did not have any previously-known heart ailments.
Could the Game Have Cause Cardiac Arrest?
Furkhan’s sister was quoted as saying that just before he collapsed he was screaming at other players. “Carry out the blast... carry out the blast. Then he threw down his phone saying ‘I will not play the game with you, I lost the game because of you.’”
FIT reached out to cardiologists to check if an adrenaline rush from a game like PUBG could actually cause cardiac arrest.
Dr Mukesh Goyel, cardiac surgeon with Delhi’s Apollo Hospital says that someone with a normal heart will not be affected by a game like PUBG. He believes that the boy may have had a congenital disease that wasn’t diagnosed.
In such cases, the heart may have had some structural or electrical defects that went undiagnosed. In many cases when young people or athletes die of cardiac arrest, usually an underlying problem is the cause.
Another cardiologist FIT reached out to also says an underlying heart defect has to be the cause of the death. Dr. Pramod Kumar, Director, Cardiac Surgery, at Fortis Hospital, explains:
Adrenaline is the natural hormone which is released into the body to cope with excitement. Because when you are excited you need a higher heart rate, blood pressure, everything. In people who have an undiagnosed heart condition, adrenaline release can lead to ventricular tachycardia.
He elaborates that this is more likely to happen in young people who have some underlying heart disease which has gone unrecognised.
“There is a cardiac muscle disorder called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. This has been seen in young people who die sudden death while playing vigorous games, on and off the field.”
Only an autopsy can establish what could have caused the young boy’s death.
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