Scared To Death: Teen Dies Of Heart Attack While Touring Haunted House
KEY POINTS
- A boy in Malaysia, 16, died after suffering a heart attack while visiting a haunted house
- An autopsy revealed that the teen, identified as Muhammad Suhairil, had a perforated heart
- Police have since classified Suhairil's demise as a "sudden death"
A 16-year-old boy in Malaysia died after he suffered a heart attack during a visit to a haunted house last week.
While vacationing with a friend’s family, Muhammad Suhairil went to a renowned spooky tourist spot located at a resort in Bentong, Pahang last Wednesday, The New York Post reported, citing local media outlet Kosmo.
The teen reportedly suffered a heart attack as he was "shocked" to see a "ghost" during the visit, which made him fall and lose consciousness.
People present on the scene tried to revive the unresponsive Suhairil, but he remained unconscious, footage of the incident taken by a bystander showed.
The bystander as well as the family of Suhairil's friend took him outside and contacted emergency services.
Responders, however, were unable to render aid to Suhairil, who died shortly after.
The teen's exact cause of death was not disclosed, but an autopsy revealed he had a perforated heart, which is a rare but potentially fatal complication.
It was unclear if Suhairil or his family were aware of the condition.
Suhairil's passing was classified as a "sudden death" and his body was sent to a residence in the city of Malacca, Bentong District Police Chief superintendent Zaiham Mohd said.
The teen's body was scheduled to be buried at the Bukit Baru Islamic Cemetery Sunday.
A similar incident happened in the U.S. state of Ohio in 2014 when a 16-year-old girl with a pre-existing medical condition had a heart attack and died at a haunted house theme park.
Christian Faith Benge was visiting the Land of Illusion Haunted Scream Park in Middletown on the night of Oct. 17 with her family when she collapsed in one of the attractions. The teen's mother attempted to perform CPR, but she later died.
Benge, who was known to have congenital diaphragmatic hernia and only had one lung, was found to have had an irregular heart as well.
"The physical autopsy showed that she had, among the pre-existing conditions, which were all respiratory, she also had some heart anomaly, a heart with the walls that were thicker than they should be," Warren County Coroner's Office Chief Investigator Doyle Burke explained.
"The heart had to compensate for the lung, and so the heart enlarged to four times its size and it just stopped," Benge's mother, Jean Benge, was quoted as saying.
Christian's family later clarified the teen was not "scared to death" after initial reports insinuated that was the cause of her death.
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