A 19-year-old student died on Tuesday after suffering a heart attack while taking an economics exam at a school in Lisle, France. Nadir Bekaddur, a young Algerian, passed out minutes before the end of the test in a room filled with about 80 students. He was taken to the hospital and died a few hours later.
The death of Nadir Bekaddur is controversial because of the reaction of the adults who were in the room at the moment when the young man became ill, writes the French press. Some witnesses claim that eight teachers even forbade other students to go to the aid of their colleague.
On the day of the tragedy, the young man took his suitcase to leave the house and go to school and said: “Dad, I promise you will be proud of me. I’ll get my degree!”
As far as the French newspaper Voix du Nord managed to find out, the young man celebrated his birthday just last week, on March 17th. Born in Algeria, Nadir Bekaddour immigrated with his family to France in 2007 to be treated for a serious heart condition. He had a poor health prognosis and doctors did not predict a good outcome.
Since then it has been followed by the Hospital de Lille. In 2012, he almost died due to complications from the disease. Since then, he has lived with a pacemaker to help stabilize him.
The French Minister of Education announced that an investigation would be opened to clarify the circumstances of the accident.
Nadir will be buried in Algiers, but the association said it will pay tribute to the young man this Sunday in the French city of Roubaix.