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Western Michigan University engineering student death was a shock to his family. The student was denied from testing for COVID-19 before being admitted to a hospital in bad condition. Bassey Offiong, who is of Nigerian 25, was a few weeks away from graduating with a degree in chemical engineering before he got sick.

Offiong sister Asari Offiong told The Detroit News that her brother had no previous health issues was turned away from getting testing for the coronavirus several times. Then he would later be admitted to Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan, a city on the outskirts of Detroit.

“I told him to ask them to test him. He said they refused to test him. One medical staffer told him he had bronchitis,” she said. Offiong didn’t name the health care centers that denied her brother the test.

Offiong spent the last week of his life on a ventilator in an intensive care unit before he passed according to the newspaper. Offiong wasn’t a resident of Kalamazoo County where WMU is located and returned home to the Detroit area by the time he got sick. The Kalamazoo County Health & Community Services Department released a statement about Offiong death.

“We are truly saddened to learn of the death of a Western Michigan University student due to COVID-19,” Jim Rutherford, the health officer at the department, said in a news release. “However, this virus has no borders when it comes to who it affects and how it is spread.”

“I know God has him in his presence,” his sister, Asari, said. “He loved God.”

Offiong’s sister said his dream was to create an organic makeup line with the Loreal company. “He’s just someone who thinks so big,” she said. The president of Western Michigan University Edward Montgomery said that he was saddened by the news.

“I was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of one of our students, Bassey Offiong,” Montgomery said. “He was a young man of enormous potential. … On behalf of the entire Bronco community, I want to extend my deepest condolences to his entire family, including his sister Asari, who has been generous in communicating with us regularly. They are in our thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.”

Fred Upton Michigan congressman commented on the news in a Facebook post. “I woke up this Sunday morning to the sad news of a WMU Engineering student who passed away with coronavirus,” he said. “He had a ventilator and, likely, other members of his immediate family are also impacted along with perhaps his roommates at WMU.”

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