NUS bio student dies after playing computer games overnight

SINGAPORE - A 25-year-old National University of Singapore (NUS) biology student was found dead at his desk after an all-nighter playing computer games, Shin Min Daily reported yesterday.

Third-year student Xu Kaixiang's body was found collapsed on the floor next to his home computer, which was still switched on.

When interviewed by the paper, his father said that his son had been holed up at home playing computer games recently as he did not have to attend lessons due to it being the school holidays.

Mr Xu said that his son would even sometimes spend entire nights playing computer games.

"When I was getting ready for bed at about 1am in the morning, I saw him in front of the computer.

When my wife and I woke up at 6.45 in the morning, we saw him lying on the living room floor, with the computer still running," he said.

He said his wife tried to wake their son up, but Kaixiang did not respond at all. Mr Xu said he then rushed forward, which is when he realised that his son's body was icy cold.

He then immediately asked his other son to quickly call an ambulance.

The family tried reviving him with CPR, and the paramedics who arrived at the scene shortly after also tried to do the same. However, their efforts were in vain.

'He was a healthy child'

Mr Xu revealed that although his son did not like to go out and preferred to stay at home with his computer, Kaixiang was a healthy boy who had no unusual complaints of feeling uncomfortable.

Hence, his son's death took him entirely by surprise.

Kaixiang used to go running twice every week, and he had gone running just a few days ago and reported nothing abnormal.

Sometimes, Mr Xu would even go running with his son.

"Last Tuesday, when we went running together, I did not find him experiencing any discomfort. His sudden death has left us all very shocked." Mr Xue said.

The reporter, taking a look around the deceased's room, found that besides computer games, he loved Japanese anime and owned several photos of anime characters.

His father said that his son was a conscientious student, who would only play games after he finished his homework or during holidays.

High achiever

Mr Xu said in an interview that his son had always been a high academic achiever all his life.

In primary school, he was placed in the Gifted Education Programme, and later went on to enter Hwa Chong Junior College, before applying to the NUS Department of Biological Sciences.

Besides his normal studies, he also took Japanese classes.

An overly excited heart may lead to sudden cardiac failure: Doctor

According to heart and surgical specialist consultant Dr Yuan Zhixiong, a sudden death of a person aged 35 can be regarded as a fairly rare event.

For a person to die suddenly so young, he may have had an underlying heart disease which was undiagnosed due to a lack of symptoms, Dr Yuan said.

He added that if the deceased frequently stayed up late to play computer games, his habit might have resulted in a strain to the heart.

Especially since the heart is already at an excited state, this might have triggered a heart disease, leading to his death.