27-Year-Old Man Dies Playing PUBG In Pune, Doctors Blame Inactivity, Anxiety And Dehydration

The hugely popular PUBG Mobile game has become the cause of death of yet another of its die-hard fans. Unfortunately, this isn't the first time such tragedy has occured due to PUBG.

In this case, 27-year-old Harshal Devidas Memane fell flat while playing PUBG on his smartphone, after suffering a stroke and two heart attacks. He died on Saturday at Ojas Multispecialtiy Hospital at Ravet, Pune.

Reuters

According to the cops, Harshal Devidas Memane had been hooked to the PUBG game for two years. Having lost their parents to an accident in their childhood, the victim and his elder brother Avinash had been brought up by their maternal uncle and his wife in Ravet, Pune.

Harshal found employment with a private company briefly but quit it a year ago and most of his time was invested in playing online games on his mobile phone, particularly PUBG. It was obviously turning into an unhealthy obsession, something that Harshal didn't realize until it was too late.

Harshal was playing PUBG on his phone, according to his family, when he fell flat on the floor late Friday night. He slipped into a coma and was quickly rushed to a hospital in critical condition where he suffered from a heart attack. The doctors managed to revive him but he suffered from another heart attack hours into Saturday morning, after which Harshal was declared dead.

While the doctors at Ojas Multispeciality Hospital at Ravet, Pune, have directly linked Harshal¡¯s death to the stress caused by his addiction to PUBG, other doctors too concurred with the diagnosis.

PUBG

¡°People forget to eat or drink when they are obsessed with their game. This leads to dehydration and thrombosis thereof, ultimately leading to haemorrhagic infarct in the brain. We¡¯ve seen similar cases where the patients come to us with high homocysteine level due to less liquid intake. This is known to trigger heart attacks,¡± pointed out Dr Sanjay Vhora, head of neurosurgery department at BJ Medical College and Sassoon General Hospitals, according to a Pune Mirror report.

This isn't the first time that people have lost their lives due to a gaming addiction. In the past, PUBG player killed his father because he wouldn't let him play in peace, and a 15-year-old allegedly killed his brother who tried to stop him from playing PUBG.

There are clearly millions of others playing PUBG across India everyday, and yet these sort of incidents are few and far between. So perhaps it's not necessarily that the game itself is evil. Then again, it's also very possible that the nature of its competitiveness (and perhaps even some elements of addictiveness) drive those more susceptible or already mentaly unstable to violence.In any case, the issue demands further scrutiny from lawmakers and medical professionals alike, as well as those in the industry itself.