Celebrity Gossip & Gist

18-year-old promising Nigerian footballer dies from mystery bug bite in UK

Published

7 years ago

September 6, 2017

A talented young Nigerian footballer has sadly died after a mystery bug bite which started off with earache and caused him hallucinations and seizures.

18 year old Josh Ayuba’s grieving family has paid tribute and described him as “an amazing son” who was “intelligent” and “always smiling”.

Tragically, in his final few days, he was so ill he couldn’t even recognise them.

His family are waiting to hear from health experts if tests have revealed what killed their son and brother.

Josh, of Portslade, near Brighton, died on Sunday evening, two weeks after complaining about an extremely painful earache which caused him to miss football training.

His worried family and his football team manager, Mark Hilfiker, urged him to see his doctor because he was becoming distressed.

Josh initially went to his GP where he was given medicine. But after not being able to eat and sleep properly for five days, he returned to the clinic where another doctor immediately sent him to the A and E department at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

An unknown bacteria had formed and reached his brain, which started causing him to hallucinate and suffer numerous seizures.

Last Tuesday, he was put in the intensive care unit, and from then onwards he could not even recognise his own family, to their despair.

Josh died at around 7pm on Sunday night, and he leaves behind an abundance of people who loved him, especially his two sisters Ruth and Jubilee.

Ruth revealed their father, Olu Ayuba, said “I will never forget you Josh. Love you always.”

And his mum Estrella added: “He was the most amazing son.

“There were many times we would be struggling, for example when there wasn’t much dinner left. Josh would always say ‘mum, you have it’ and it would go on and on. He had a very generous heart.”