A 23-year-old student from Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) has died from a viral infection despite being diagnosed with minor flu initially.

A Ngee Ann Polytechnic alumnus, Benedict James Naden-Lim, was an avid swimmer and a swim coach.

Initially diagnosed with flu

Speaking to the Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao, Naden-Lim's father, 52, shared that Naden-Lim had a fever and rashes in mid-June.

When they visited a clinic, the doctor diagnosed it as minor flu.

However, Naden-Lim did not get better after taking the medication.

His health condition deteriorated in July and had to be sent to the emergency department at a hospital.

Died from rare immune system disease

After being admitted into the hospital, Naden-Lim was diagnosed to have Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) which has symptoms similar to flu.

Typically, one would recover just like getting flu.

However, EBV might develop into rare complications such as cancer and hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) for some people due to gene mutation.

HLH is a life-threatening rare immune system disease.

The chances of EBV developing into HLH is estimated to be one out of 1,200,000 patients.

Further checks found his liver and kidney to be failing, and there were signs that his lungs were accumulated with fluid.

Three weeks into hospitalisation, Naden-Lim was diagnosed with lymphoma. 

On Aug. 26, Naden-Lim went into a coma due to brain bleed.

Unfortunately, he passed away after brain surgery on Aug. 31.

Father urged people to donate blood

When Naden-Lim was hospitalised, Naden-Lim's father told the public that the stock at national blood bank was running low.

Patients might not be able to undergo operations if there is a lack of blood in the blood bank.

As a result, he urged members of the public to donate blood on Aug. 30, before Naden-Lim's operation.

He added that he wanted to help others in need with the public announcement.

Naden-Lim's father also revealed that the medical bill hit up to S$400,000 in just two months.

He advised people not to take flu symptoms lightly and if the symptoms persist for more than three days, one should see a doctor.

One should also wash hands diligently, to avoid getting infected by EBV.

For those who know Naden-Lim, the details to his wake can be found here:

Top photo from Benjamin Naden's Facebook