FIFA player dies suddenly while playing PlayStation game

Aiden Redshaw passed away "unexpectedly and suddenly" when he leaned backwards and closed his eyes during a session of the PlayStation game, Winchester Coroners' Court heard. 

His girlfriend Daria originally thought the Solent University music graduate was choking and after efforts to help, rang emergency services in a panic.

Paramedics and police arrived and tried resuscitating him for an hour and 20 minutes - using a defibrillator 12 times to try to save him.

But he was pronounced dead at around 8.30pm at the Portsmouth Road flat they were living in together. 

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Aiden Redshaw (Image: Supplied)

Emergency services originally thought he had died from a cardiac arrest.

But concluding an inquest into his passing on Wednesday, Coroner Christopher Wilkinson said Aiden's death was "unascertained as far as the medical evidence is concerned".

He added that he had been "leading a broadly healthy lifestyle" and "there was nothing out of the ordinary".

"It was quite lucky that there was an ambulance that was particularly close by," Mr Wilkinson said.

"They have gone to significant lengths to try and save Aiden. They wanted to do everything they could to try and bring him back."

In a statement read out by the coroner, Aiden's girlfriend, Daria Loseva recounted the incident on November 21, 2022.

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"Aiden had been at home all day," she said. 

"England were playing and we were talking about it all day. He was eating ice cream and he was playing on FIFA.

"I then noticed that his eyes were closed and that the computer controller had slipped out of his hands.

"I tried to pry his mouth open because I thought he might have been choking. I was panicking.

"I remained in the bedroom and whilst paramedics were trying to resuscitate Aiden in the living room.

"They asked me if I wanted to hold his hand whilst they turned off the machine, which I did."

The couple began their relationship around a month after they met on February 23, 2017, and moved in together when Aiden was in his third year of university.

His mother, Chris Redshaw, recounted how he had taught himself to play guitar by ear at the age of 14 as he looked to follow in the steps of his hero, Queen guitarist Brian May.

She said: "Music was his first love. He had lots of friends in Southampton."

Father, Mark Redshaw added that Aiden had been "fit and healthy" with "no ailments" and had aspirations to be in bands.

He said: "We have got 21 of his guitars at home. We have got stuff we can listen to, which we do."

The couple said his death was "very shocking".

The inquest heard how a post-mortem examination did not uncover a cause of death, though Chris told the coroner she had suffered from epilepsy during her 20s. 

He had reported having Covid around two weeks before his death after a trip to Belfast to visit friends.

But Mr Wilkinson said this was "unlikely to have been a specific factor", adding there was no damage to the lungs. 

He began smoking at the age of 20 and drank socially, but "not too much" according to his girlfriend.

The coroner ruled that Aiden's death was as a result of unascertained natural causes.

Mr Wilkinson said: "It is possible that if he had been playing on the PlayStation all day the flickering of the screen could have been enough to trigger an epileptic event."

That certainly is a possibility, nudging as I say towards a probability."

He added that the death was "so sudden, so unexpected and so undiagnosed", saying: "I know that Aiden was otherwise an incredibly healthy young lad. As a parent myself, I cannot begin to imagine that loss."

Aiden had been working for Starling Bank as a customer service advisor at the time of his death having previously worked at Papillion in Commercial Road.

He played in his band, Kings and Castles and left behind four brothers and his parents, who live at the family home in Waterlooville.

Friend pays tribute to 'genuinely good laugh'

A former colleague and friend has also spoken of his shock after learning of Aiden’s death.

Chandler Russell met Aiden whilst they were both working at TGI Friday’s and later, Papillion, in Southampton and would often go out with him as a group.

He said he had been getting ready for work when he was texted by a colleague who told him what had happened.

“I had a bit of a shocked moment. Afterwards I was still in a bit of disbelief.

“I kind of really realised that life really is short and anything could happen at any time.

“It doesn’t matter how healthy you try to be.”

Describing Aiden, he said: “A genuinely good laugh.

“He was laughing all the time, a cackle of a laugh. You could hear it a mile away.

“There were absolutely no kind of signs that anything like that could possibly happen. I feel like it could happen to anybody at any time.”

Chandler has started a JustGiving page for Sudden Cardiac Arrest UK in Aiden’s memory, raising £1,307 so far.