What could make a man (or woman) begin a journey of sexual pleasure and never return alive? Daniel Adeleye, in this report, relives some past incidences, and explores possible causes.
Friday, 24th August 2018 will forever remain indelible in the mind of the family and colleagues of Sunday Eguakhide, a 56-year old Police Superintendent who reportedly convulsed and died while having sex with his mistress right in his office at the Police College, Ikeja, Lagos.
According to reports, it was just a week to his retirement and he probably decided to engage in one last romp in the office before bidding it farewell.
Eguakhide’s secret lover explained that the late police officer was fond of taking sexual enhancement concoction whenever he wanted to meet her, a habit she said she had repeatedly warned him against because it is not good for his body.
The woman, who said the late police officer was always having sex with her in his office, revealed that he was always pounding her ceaselessly, taking far longer time to come, due to the enhancer.
“I didn’t like it because I was the one that used to bear the brunt of it,” she explained.
On that fateful day, late Eguakhide had already gone one round, but, according to his lover, he was never satisfied after one round. She said it was in the course of the second round that he suddenly started panting and gasping for breath and suddenly fell off her and died.
The case of Obi Nwoda was not different from Sunday Eguakhide, except that Nwoda was older.
Nwoda, 65, died during a sex romp with his lover, Ifeoma Ayinka, 34, in an Awka hotel on a Saturday evening last November.
According to a report, the incident happened at Desires and Leisure Hotel in Agu Awka where Nwoda had lodged with Ayinka.
The staff of the hotel became suspicious when Ayinka was seen leaving the hotel premises later in the evening without her lover. They reportedly confronted her and led her back to the room where they met the 65-year old lying unconscious and promptly alerted the police.
On interrogation, Ayinka alleged that the victim collapsed while making love to her. She was subsequently arrested and the case is under investigation to ascertain circumstances surrounding Nwoda’s death.
The case of a 45-year-old man who slumped and died on a Sunday in August, 2017, after having sex with his girlfriend at her apartment in War College Estate, Gwarimpa, Abuja is another such incident.
The deceased had visited his girlfriend, identified as Bridget at about 10:00 am that fateful Sunday and was preparing to leave after they had made love, when he suddenly slumped and died. Bridget said she was in the bathroom when the incident happened.
In a sleepy community in Ikota, along Lekki-Epe Expressway, Lagos, the people also woke up to the bizarre story of a middle-aged commercial bus driver identified as Emmanuel, who suddenly slumped and died while making love to his wife in their home.
It was gathered that the wife, Affiong, suddenly noticed that her husband was no longer moving while on top of her. Scared and confused, the mother of two was said to have called her husband’s younger brother, Akpan, who resides in Badore area and broke the news to him.
She was said to have advised her husband to rest because he was just recuperating from an illness but he vehemently rebuffed her, threatening to seek the pleasure elsewhere if she didn’t allow him.
Experts’ perspective
Two medical practitioners spoken to, confirmed to The Nation in separate interviews that death can occur during consensual sex for a number of reasons, generally because of the physical strain of the activity, or because of unusual extenuating circumstances.
Speaking on factors that can lead to death during sex, the Chief Medical Director, CKC Hospital, Sango-Ota, Dr Samuel Bankole, described sex as an energy sapping activity that could lead to death if either of the partners is not in a stable health condition.
He blamed some recorded incidents of death on sexual enhancers, which their users hardly bother about their negative consequences.
As an African, he believes in Magun (or thunderbolt) but he argued that Magun does not take the life of its victim until when such victim eat, drink or do the forbidden.
“Sex is an energy sapping activity. Some die as a result of engaging in the act despite their unstable health condition, to satisfy their lust and some take sexual enhancements to go extra miles to satisfy their partners without minding the danger attached to it,” he stressed.
Also speaking, Dr Olugbenga Alabi of Ota General Hospital, Ogun State, stressed that as much as sex is a pleasurable activity, it is also an activity that consumes a lot of energy.
Alabi described the general belief that sex is a mere pleasurable event that requires no energy, as being far from the truth.
He explained that Adenosine Tri-Phosphate (ATP) otherwise known as the energy currency of the body, consumed during sexual intercourse, especially during orgasm is very high.
According to him, “Death during sex is more common with patients that have background of certain illnesses, and the commonest in this part of the world is cardiovascular diseases; hypertension and diabetes.
“They can be predisposed to death during sexual intercourse. It’s commoner with men than women because, according to the orgasm ladder, men reach orgasm faster than women. A woman may just be in stage 2 during sex while a man may have reached stage 5 and come back to zero.
“The commonest cause of death during sexual intercourse is patient having subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). It’s a form of stroke and also a form of blood vessel taking blood to brain bursting during sex,” he stated.
“We have cases like that of people who were rushed to the hospital. If they are rushed to the hospital on time, they may still survive but if not, it’s something very lethal.
Alabi also stressed that the life of a patient suffering from Myocardial infarction (MI), which is commonly known as heart attack, could be cut short while having marathon sex.
“During sex, all the body parts and soul are involved. It’s not only the body; the soul must also be ready to do it. So when all those things come to play, there is increased consumption of energy.”
He said inadequate supply of nutrients, energy and oxygen to the heart to compensate for what it’s doing, can make it suffer an attack, which may be very lethal.
According to him, Myocardial Infarction (MI) patients are restrained from having sex for at least two weeks in some developed countries like United Kingdom, UK, saying such may not be easily recommended in Nigeria because of government’s poor policy on health conditions.
Regular exercise essential
Both Dr. Bankole and Dr. Alabi recommend regular physical fitness to both male and female to stay fit and avoid complications that may arise during sexual intercourse.
According to the medical experts, having sex uses a lot of muscles that one doesn’t normally use during the course of the day, especially during ejaculation which is the peak of sex.
“When you are having sex, the exercise you do is greater than running a 400-metre race, so if you don’t engage in a regular exercise, that may pose a danger,” Banjoko affirmed.
The medical doctors encouraged all to avoid living a life of physical in activity.
“It’s important to engage in enough physical exercise; not necessarily jumping or going to the gym every day, but taking at least 10-20minutes walk daily,” Alabi said.
He added: “Sex and death, the commonest problem still remain with the heart or its vessels. Other things may not even give you enough energy to do it. A patient that has obtrusive airwaves problem will not have enough strength to engage in aggressive sexual intercourse.
“It also depends on the sex position they engage in. There are some sex positions that won’t consume much energy and there are other sex positions that require much energy.”
Age really matters in sex?
Dr Alabi also says age remain a non modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular diseases.
According to him, “When we say risk factor, in some non communicable diseases, there are no definite causes for it. Majority of people with hypertension don’t have a major cause, we only know that there are risk factors like, obesity, smoking, taking excessive alcohol, excessive cholesterol; being a black is also a risk factor for hypertension. There are other factors like genetic diseases, family history of hypertension, family history of diabetes that is risk factors for the cardiovascular diseases.
“Of all the above factors, some are modifiable and some are non-modifiable. So anyone with family history of diabetes or hypertension, from age 55 has three risk factors combined because he can’t change his family, can’t change his race as black and can’t also reduce his age. These are non-modifiable risk factors.”
He explained further, “As we grow older, we are like vehicle, our body parts wear and tear but unfortunately we can’t replace them. As far as cardiovascular diseases are concerned, the older one gets, the more the risk factors.
“When some older women come to the hospital and complain that they are having irregular menstruation, I welcome them to the male club. Being a man is a factor for hypertension, so by the time women attain menopause, they are also prone to hypertension.”
Sexual enhancement a fatal decision
The dangers lurking for users of sexual enhancement pills, according to Doctor Alabi, are more fatal than beneficial.
Rather than taking enhancement to boost sexual performance, Alabi advised that the one who suffers erectile dysfunction could take proper stalk of history to pick a cause of the problem.
He warned that people should desist from taking sexual enhancement, especially the unorthodox ones that have no regulated dosage, as they could be rendered permanently impotent.
“There are two types of erectile dysfunction (ED): psychogenic and neurogenic. Psychogenic is just like psychy. A man who fought with his wife at home may not have sexual urge for that woman until they resolve the fight. That is psychogenic. Some may be caused by systemic disease like diabetes and by the time you’re treating them and controlling sugar in them, their penile erection too will start improving.”
“I won’t mention those things people are taking; however, though it may give them some aphrodisiac effect, the side effect is not usually too good. For instance, if someone has persistent penile erection that lasts for more than four hours and there is no medical intervention, it can render the victim permanently impotent.
“In the pathogenesis of penile erection, the major thing is the blood vessel in the penis will dilate, it will enlarge so that the blood will flow. When blood flows in and it does not flow out, that penis remain turgid. But God has made that system a form of ying yang, such that when you need to have sex, it rises and when you finish the operation, the verve opens and the blood moves out. But in all those enhancement, especially the unorthodox ones, they don’t have that check verves.”
“Even with our orthodox drugs that we give patients, there is improvement everyday as to reducing other side effect that can arise from it. Some years back, there was a drug called Viagra, but today there is another brand that has some advantages over the first brand,” he cautioned.
Traditionalists’ view
Corroborating the above views of medical experts, a roots and herbs seller, Morufat Ojo said, if anybody slumps and dies during sex, such person may have a history of sickness such as hypertension or diabetes; or as a result of sexual enhancement many are fond of taking.
Ojo claimed that if anyone comes for erectile dysfunction solution or roots and herbs for sexual enhancement, she always tries to find out the cause of such problem before giving the patient herbs for sexual performance.
“Some people are suffering from erectile dysfunction ED as a result of pile; some are going through both physical and emotional stress, so we ask all that.”
“Like in the hospital where the doctor will carry out tests on a patient to ascertain the causes of sickness in the body, we ask them all that too. Some are diabetic and some are hypertensive and if we confirm any of these, we first treat them on those sicknesses before giving them sexual enhancers,” she submitted.
Kushimo Adisa, an Ifa priest, however, has a divergent opinion on death during sex. To him it’s not possible for any man or woman to breathe off during sexual intercourse on account of health.
Adisa believed that those that died during the actions are either victims of magun or the women they has sex with failed to bear certain sacrifice to appease the spirit world.
But thunderbolt does not kill its victim immediately until the man eats, drinks or does the forbidden, this reporter argued.
Adisa however countered that, “There are many types of thunderbolt; some kill only when you do the magun and some kill immediately. There are some that the victim would be matiating and doctor would not be able to discover the problem in him.
“So in a nutshell, there is nothing that can make a man that has erection to start a journey of sexual pleasure to die on the way, there must be something somewhere, hidden in the woman’s body,” he submitted.
Women too
Interestingly, the story of people collapsing during sex is not limited to men alone.
A widow, simply identified as Esther, not too long ago, died while having sex with a police inspector, Friday Ogbeifun, attached to Border Patrol Unit, Ilaro, Ogun State.
It was learnt that the inspector and Esther had checked in at a hotel on Dele Toye Street, Igando, one evening to have fun. While they were at it, the woman, a mother of five, slumped and was rushed to the Igando General Hospital, where she was confirmed dead on arrival.
According to a credible source, “The policeman and the woman were lovers. The woman was a widow. What I do not know is whether they had sex before she slumped.
In May 2015, a Lagos taxi driver, identified as Utebor, also had his finger burnt after he took a lady he met on the road, home for sex, as she reportedly died in the heat of the action.
A police source said the exhausted lady slumped and died after a marathon session and a neighbour alerted the police at the Ipaja division.
