British backpacker 'died from excitement'

A BRITISH backpacker who collapsed on a train in Thailand may have died from 'excitement', say medical experts.

Algernon Lendrum, 19, suffered a brain haemorrhage in 2008 while on a 14-hour over night train to Bangkok.

The teenage traveller from Stove in England keeled over when a rare undiagnosed congenital weakness caused a blood vessel in his brain to burst, reports the UK's Daily Telegraph.

Pathologist Dr Peter Wilkins, who discovered the burst aneurism, said the symptom is "often associated with excitement or stress, such as railway journeys or changing trains."

Coroner Dr Paul Knapman said: "Usually, and I say this with regret, young people of this age die by the reason of some drug, but that is not the case. Here the cause of death is a haemorrhage due to a ruptured brain aneurism." .

"He had that for some time. They are usually asymptomatic. They can burst at any time and unhappily they do."

Dr Paul Knapman officially recorded a verdict of death by natural causes.

Aldwyn Boscawen, who was with Mr Lendrum when he died, said his travel companion began to suffer chest pains and fell unconscious as the train arrived in Bangkok.

"I tried to help but no one had any First Aid training so we called for help," Mr Boscawen said in a statement to Westminster Coroner's Court.

Peter

He must have been thinking about his favourite girlfriend or something....theres nothing exciting about the train. Sad to see someone die in their prime. RIP

Just goes to show,even a young fella should have a checkup before travelling.Whether it would have found this problem though,i don't know.Poor bugger,just at the beginning of his life.

British backpacker 'died from excitement'

A BRITISH backpacker who collapsed on a train in Thailand may have died from 'excitement', say medical experts.

Algernon Lendrum, 19, suffered a brain haemorrhage in 2008 while on a 14-hour over night train to Bangkok.

The teenage traveller from Stove in England keeled over when a rare undiagnosed congenital weakness caused a blood vessel in his brain to burst, reports the UK's Daily Telegraph.

Pathologist Dr Peter Wilkins, who discovered the burst aneurism, said the symptom is "often associated with excitement or stress, such as railway journeys or changing trains."

Coroner Dr Paul Knapman said: "Usually, and I say this with regret, young people of this age die by the reason of some drug, but that is not the case. Here the cause of death is a haemorrhage due to a ruptured brain aneurism." .

"He had that for some time. They are usually asymptomatic. They can burst at any time and unhappily they do."

Dr Paul Knapman officially recorded a verdict of death by natural causes.

Aldwyn Boscawen, who was with Mr Lendrum when he died, said his travel companion began to suffer chest pains and fell unconscious as the train arrived in Bangkok.

"I tried to help but no one had any First Aid training so we called for help," Mr Boscawen said in a statement to Westminster Coroner's Court.

Peter

cant see what is so exciting or stressful about a train ride for a 19 yo.

poor fella, still young

Well, if its asymptomatic I can't see how a check up would have made a difference. No doctor is going to do a brain scan of a normal healthy 19 year old.

I feel for his family and his friends, so young to die and so far from home, it must have been awful. Especially with the obvious implication overhanging them that the doctors assumed it was drugs.

Odd how the doctor pulled out train journeys or changing trains as examples of stress. Maybe he was just trying to put it into context but I would have thought that was probably one of the lest stressful activities encountered in your youth.

RIP to the poor guy, just shows that you never know when your time will be up.

The excitment could have been the mere fact he has traveld abroad for the first time in his life and is arriving in a foreign capital city and all that eastern promise and was looking forward to a wonderful holiday. As others have said its sad that a life ends so young and a family loses a son in a foreign land. My thoughts are with them.

i dint find it exciting or important at all

i dint find it exciting or important at all

Why so may many stupid farangs here. <deleted>!

Edited February 19, 200917 yr by chiang mai

while on a 14-hour over night train to Bangkok.

... a rare undiagnosed congenital weakness

it's really no fun to travel 14h on a thai train - most probably it was a 3rd class, slow train. It has hard, wooden seats and the carriagies are really bumpy, even with the speed of 40km/h (that's how fast they go on average). Shaking of the carriage for that long causes even in a healthy person headache and stress. If you try to sleep with your head against the trains wall (as you would do on a 14h train), you have quaranteed mild health problems for the next few days.

as Algernon had congenital medical problem, he really should have occasional check ups/scans, to see what's happening. Surely his vessel was deteriorating for sometimes, usually many years - to burst in in extreme situation (like vigourosly shaking/banging the head)

It's very sad. I've known two people that died that way. One was a classmate--a young girl, when I was in grade 7. Just fell out of her desk onto the floor and was dead. The other was a cousin. She had two kids and was outside watering her flowers and keeled over and died.

It's quite hard to diagnose and it often strikes people when they are young.

Condolences to the family and friends. Not much they could have done to prevent it.

How terribly sad. RIP

Posts have been deleted.

Some poor soul has died unexpectedly and far too young. Lets show some respect for the boy's family and friends should they find this thread.

Do I understand an autopsy was carried out in the UK?

Posts have been deleted.

Some poor soul has died unexpectedly and far too young. Lets show some respect for the boy's family and friends should they find this thread.

Do I understand an autopsy was carried out in the UK?

yes, i found this a little strange as well...... but then again maybe his parents wanted a second opion from a pro in London?? ... was one done in Thailand?

Poor guy, condolences to his family.

Far too young to die, but from the brief details it seems that he didn't suffer too much. Not that that makes it OK or anything.