Rutgers freshman collapses playing basketball, later dies at hospital
theGRIO REPORT - As of Tuesday, doctors are still unsure what led to 18-year-old Patrick Awosogba's death in the middle of a basketball game on campus...
As of Tuesday, doctors are still unsure what led to 18-year-old Patrick Awosogba’s death in the middle of a basketball game on campus.
On Sunday, Awosogba was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital after his collapse during the game, where he died that afternoon.
On Monday, Awosogba’s sister, Temi, who is a practicing doctor in Boston, suggested that her brother might have suffered from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or HCM, in which an abnormally thick heart muscle causes irregular heart beats or arrythmia.
But on Tuesday, the medical examiner said it did not look like HCM. “Essentially, she looked at the heart and said it’s not typical HCM,” Temi Awosogba told NJ Advance Media. “The heart is not as large as you would think in a case of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.”
The medical examiner said that more tests would be necessary to determine the cause of death.
In the meantime, Awosogba’s friends and family are preparing for his funeral on Saturday. “The Awosogba family welcomes the Rutgers community to attend the funeral,” Rutgers Chancellor Richard L. Edwards said in a statement.
“The Rutgers community is saddened by Patrick’s passing, and I know you join me in offering our thoughts and prayers to his family and friends,” Edwards said.
