24/04/2026
🍓 On the 400-level OAU student who d*ed during exams.
If you’ve been online, you’ve seen the news. A 400-level student at OAU collapsed and d*ed during an exam. Another young doctor-in-training, gone.
Emotions are high – anger, grief, fear. But let’s step back and be logical for a minute. Not cold. Logical.
😔 What we know (generally, from patterns of such incidents):
1. Exam stress + long hours of reading + poor sleep + possibly undiagnosed health issues = a dangerous combination.
2. In many cases, sudden d*ath in young people during exertion (including mental stress) points to things like:
· Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) – often asymptomatic until a crisis.
· Arrhythmias triggered by stress or dehydration.
· Hypertensive heart disease (more common than we think in young Nigerians due to undetected high BP).
· Electrolyte imbalance from poor eating + caffeine abuse.
🤔 What we don’t know (and shouldn’t assume immediately):
1. Whether the school’s exam schedule was unreasonable – we need details.
2. Whether there was negligence by staff or peers.
3. Whether the student had previous symptoms they ignored (many of us do).
📌 What this means for us as medical students:
1. Know your body’s red flags.
Chest tightness, palpitations that won’t stop, dizziness, fainting during stress – those are not “anxiety only.” Get a proper cardiac evaluation. Yes, it costs money. But so does a fun*ral.
2. Exam pressure is real, but dying is not a strategy.
No grade, no resit, no repeat is worth your life. The system will produce another doctor to replace you. Your family cannot replace you.
3. We need better on-campus emergency response.
Does your faculty have a first aid kit? A working BP apparatus? Someone who knows CPR? If not, start demanding it. Not after a d*ath – now.
4. The “grind culture” in Nigerian med school is toxic.
The pride in “I read for 72 hours straight” is stupidity dressed in discipline. Sleep is not laziness. Hydration is not weakness.
I always tell students: Sleep is also a study habit.
💔 Final thought:
We will protest, we will mourn, and we should push for systemic changes – better exam spacing, mandatory health checks, emergency protocols... But also, each of us must take personal responsibility. The system may not change in time to save you. You have to save yourself.
Rest in peace, colleague. We’ll remember you by changing how we treat ourselves and each other.
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— Alacrity Explains