‘Fit and healthy’ student, 20, died as his brothers rushed out to buy him paracetamol for stomach pain – after ’emergency call taker said problem wasn’t serious enough to send an ambulance’

A ‘fit and healthy’ man, 20, died in his university halls after sudden severe stomach pain – devastating his brothers, who thought it would be ‘us three until the end’. 

Joshua Adiefeh, from Nottingham, passed away at his accommodation in Manchester on the morning of September 28, having only moved in a week prior. 

The first-year accounting and finance student at Manchester Metropolitan University had been vomiting with stomach pain for a few weeks. 

But it rapidly declined overnight, just hours after his twin Joel, 20, and brother Daniel, 21, had come to visit him in his new city. 

With an ambulance initially unable to attend, the boys had been told to give Joshua paracetamol, which they ran to a shop two minutes away to grab. 

When they returned, however, their brother was lying unconscious on the bathroom floor – and despite the efforts of paramedics, he was dead within two hours.  

An autopsy showed Joshua had been suffering from a blocked intestine, Daniel claimed, which is a serious, life-threatening condition.

And he has now paid tribute to his ‘outgoing’ and ‘hard-working’ little brother – and told the Daily Mail of the deep loss felt by the whole family. 

‘I thought it would be us three until the end,’ said the Notts County footballer, who has now launched a GoFundMe page to raise money for funeral expenses. 

‘Anyone that knows me knows that I have two brothers. Anyone that knows Josh knows that he has two brothers. Everything we did, we did it together.

‘For Joel, even to this day, I can see in his eyes, he’s not the same.’

Daniel called Joshua ‘a person of the people’, ‘selfless’ and ‘always willing to help others’. 

Around 300 people came to a send-off event he organised last week, with speeches, balloons and fireworks to celebrate his younger brother’s life. 

Joshua was also a ‘relentless’ hard worker, Daniel said, always ‘trying to be the best version of himself, whether that was through working or going to the gym’. 

The brothers all loved football too and often played together, with Joshua and Joel always coming to watch Daniel’s matches.  

But that night, the keen athlete was rendered motionless in bed, just hours after a quiet evening with his twin, eating at Nando’s, going on a walk and playing pool. 

Daniel had dropped Joel off, leaving the tight-knit pair to enjoy their quality time and going out in the city with friends, having only seen Joshua at home a week before. 

His little brother soon began to feel a pain in his stomach – and the next morning, Joel, who was staying with his twin, called Daniel for help. 

‘I didn’t really think anything of it,’ the older brother said, given Joshua had been experiencing the symptoms for a few weeks. 

‘When you’ve got a belly ache, you don’t think there’s anything too serious.’  

He soon received a call from Joshua himself, though, telling him to hurry, which made him realise things were worse than he thought. 

Daniel explained: ‘At first, he was fine, it was subtle pain he could manage, he could walk around. 

‘And as time went on, it just got worse and worse and worse, to the point where by the time Joel called the ambulance, Joshua couldn’t walk and he was struggling to breathe.’ 

But on the phone to emergency services, Daniel said: ‘The ambulance have said they can’t get Joshua because they don’t think the problem is serious enough.’ 

The call handler told Joel simply to give their brother paracetamol, which he ran to the shop to buy. 

But when he returned to Joshua’s accommodation with Daniel and his friends just minutes later, their brother was lying unconscious on the bathroom floor. 

‘We were shocked, we didn’t think that was a possibility,’ Daniel said. 

His friend put Joshua in the recovery position and checked his pulse before paramedics arrived around five minutes later, after a call from another student. 

‘They literally brought out everything possible and we got sent into another room,’ his older brother explained. 

‘Within an hour and a half, I had a feeling that Josh wasn’t in the best condition possible so I urged them to find out what’s going on. 

‘Within ten minutes, they told me Josh is dead.

‘It was terrible. For us, me and my two brothers, we’ve always been together, we’ve always done everything together.

‘To see that in live action, going in there, looking at Josh’s face and his mouth is open and there’s no breath coming out. My heart sank.’  

When he was living at home, Joshua used to come with Daniel every time he drove somewhere – and the pair would discuss their plans for the future. 

Daniel said his brother, the most academic of the three of them, was ‘a guy of high aspirations’, who dreamed of owning his own business. 

He explained: ‘We always spoke of the future in terms of ten plus years, when we’d have kids.

‘We would just talk about life, what we want to do for our parents, what we must do in the next couple of years, landmarks in terms of how much money we need to reach. 

‘It’s devastating the person I thought I would be able to do that with is gone.’ 

A spokesperson for North West Ambulance Service said: ‘We want to offer our sincere condolences to Joshua’s family at this very difficult time.

‘We invite them to contact our patient resolutions team with their concerns. We will then investigate and get in touch with them directly about our findings.’

A Manchester Metropolitan University spokesperson said: ‘It is with great sadness that we can confirm the death of our first year Accounting and Finance student Joshua Adiefeh. 

‘Our thoughts are with Joshua’s family and friends at this difficult time. 

‘We have offered support to Joshua’s family and we have let students and staff know that professionally trained counselling staff are on hand to support anyone affected by this sad news.’