A man who won £26.5m in Brazil’s largest lottery died just weeks later, after spending the money on dental treatment.
Antônio Lopes Siqueira, a cattle farmer from Mato Grosso, won the jackpot earlier this year after spending the equivalent of just over 66p on a lottery ticket.
Following his victory, he reportedly spent some of the cash on dental treatment. However, during the operation he suffered a cardiac arrest that lasted 30 minutes until the emergency services arrived, the HuffPost reported.
They added that Mr Siqueira suffered from both diabetes and high blood pressure at the time of his death, and despite attempts to resuscitate him, he was declared dead.
In a statement, the head of local police Edison Pick said the cause of death had not yet been determined, but that authorities were still working towards a conclusion.
He said: “It has not yet been determined whether the cause of death was natural or induced. If it was a sudden illness, the clinic will not be held responsible. We are waiting for the results of the autopsy to clarify the facts.”
Mr Siqueira’s death so soon after his lottery win has sent shockwaves through the local community, with one local telling the press: “He was a simple person; no one expected something like this to happen to him, much less that it would end so quickly.”
Another individual, Yesser Dahrouge, told Matto Grosso: “It’s very sad; everyone dreams of winning such an amount of money. It’s a shame he couldn’t enjoy it.”
Since his death, Mr Siqueira has been buried in Jaciara, around 88.75m (142km) from his hometown of Ciuabá.
The lottery that Mr Siqueira took part in was known as Mega-Sena lottery, the largest lottery in Brazil, where a victor is decided through the selection of six numbers. The probability of someone winning the jackpot is reportedly one in 50,063,860.
Mr Siqueira’s victory before his death was the 10th largest amount in the competition’s history.
