■ ‘Abiola’s swollen heart probably caused by hypertension’
■ ‘Yes, stress could have induced asthmatic attack in Abacha’
By ENYERIBE EJIOGU
the ghosts of Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, presumed winner of the 1993 presidential election and General Sani Abacha, former head of state, are yet to find rest, 19 years after both men died in questionable circumstances, on July 7, 1998 and June 8, 1998, respectively, in Abuja.
Following Abiola’s demise, a team of foreign and Nigerian pathologists conducted an autopsy to ascertain the cause of death, though the report was never officially published till date. Non-publication of the autopsy report only added petrol to the raging fire of controversy over his death. The government only said that he died of cardiac arrest (heart attack) a fact that seemed to agree with the story that made the rounds that pathologists found that Abiola’s heart was swollen. Moreover, it was also reported at the time that no particles of undigested or semi-digested food were found in his stomach, thereby laying credence to a claim that he was not served food until when he had the short meeting with the American delegation led by Mr. Thomas Pickering, former US ambassador to Nigeria.
Notwithstanding the claims and counter-claims, it was common knowledge that Abiola had hypertension, which was under strict, appropriate and professional management while he was a free man and running his businesses spread across the globe.
As Sunday Sun reporter learnt from Dr. Sam Adebayo, a consultant and medical director of Dayspring Hospitals Group, the finding that Abiola’s heart was larger than normal fitted with the general expectation of the progressive deterioration of the heart in a person whose hypertensive state was not properly managed.
Asked to give an insight to this, Adebayo said: “It is known that hypertension is a silent killer. So if someone has hypertension, the best thing is to take care of it. When the blood pressure is controlled the body system will function well. If the blood pressure is not controlled and it is very high, that means that the major organs of the body (brain, heart, liver, kidney, lungs, etc) are being supplied blood at a very high pressure.
“What this implies is that when the tension continues to increase, the vessels that supply blood to these organs will be damaged. Any of the organs can then develop a problem. For instance, the kidney can fail as a result of high blood pressure. In the same way, the heart itself can also develop a problem due to damage to the vessels that supply blood to its muscles. In the case of the brain, the capillaries can start bursting as a result of the high tension within them. This will cause cloths that can lead to stroke. In essence, if blood pressure is not properly controlled, the person would develop complications in the major organs.”
Continuing, he said: “Now you come to a case of a person who is incarcerated, and thereby separated from friends and family members, and put in an unfamiliar environment, under armed guard with his every movement closely monitored, and unsure of what may happen to him the next minute, definitely that sort of situation will certainly create intense emotional and psychological stress added to a pre-existing hypertensive condition. And if the person is not getting the level of medical care he was previously accustomed to before incarceration, it is a foregone conclusion that the hypertensive state will only get worse. If the trend is not reversed, the health status will go downhill and anything can happen.”
When told that information gleaned from the autopsy report and disclosed by unofficial sources indicated that Abiola’s heart was swollen, he confirmed that anybody that has hypertension can ultimately have a swollen heart if the condition was not properly controlled, adding that the development could cause multiple complications that could lead to death, if issue of poisoning (through drinking tea) was not a factor, as had been alleged in some quarters.
In the same manner, the actual cause of Abacha’s death is still shrouded in secrecy because autopsy was not done.
However, it was reported he had long suffered from asthma. A report stated that he was found sitting on a chair, dead, with an inhaler lying on the ground.
When this was put to the medical director of Edozie Clinic, Dr. Lambo Igwe, and asked what could trigger an asthmatic attack that can progress to the point of killing the person, he said: “It depends on the causative factor at that particular time and the response to the drug. So it can happen that the response to the drug may not be effective and other circumstances can lead to it. Let me point out that stress can be a causative factor and trigger an asthmatic attack that can progress and kill the person.
So a person who was a military man and who was determined to transmute from military head of state to civilian president, and was facing strong opposition from civil society groups, led by the National Democratic Coalition as well as the western powers on the one hand and the challenges of governing an increasingly restive nation on the other, it is possible that the stress on him as a result of the mounting tension and his inordinate ambition to succeed himself, may have triggered an asthmatic attack in him that progressed rapidly and led to his death before appropriate help got to him.
He explained further: “As a military head of state, he was expectedly exposed to stress. But depending on his body condition he could have been coping with it, considering that he was a military man and very stubborn. But if you look at the circumstances surrounding what he was trying to achieve, of course you can see that the stress level would increase and possibly trigger an attack. Basically he was under pressure and increasing stress, though he must have been withstanding it. In as much as he was bold and stubborn, stressful condition he was facing at the time could have triggered that asthmatic attack, but that is not to say that it was what killed him. The actual cause of death could only have been determined by an autopsy, but this was not done because he was buried same day in line with Islamic injunctions.
Igwe also revealed that it is possible for a person to have asthma and hypertension at the same time. He noted that both conditions (asthma and hypertension) could be worsened by stress.