Moritz Erhardt collapsed in his shower after returning from his job as a bank intern (Picture: Facebook)
An intern who died while working at a top investment bank in London may have lost his life as a result of a fit triggered by the ‘exceptional’ hours he was working, an inquest has heard.
Moritz Erhardt, 21, was found in the shower of his temporary accommodation after suffering an epileptic fit, just a week before completing his placement at Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s London offices.
An inquest at Poplar Coroner’s Court in east London heard that the German student, who died on August 15, was taking medication for epilepsy and that the fit could have been triggered by the long hours worked.
The inquest heard that he had not told anyone at the bank about his condition.
Mr Erhardt’s death sparked calls to overhaul the culture of punishingly long hours in the City of London after it emerged he had worked through the night several times in the days leading up to his death, and prompted Bank of America Merrill Lynch to launch a review.
Recording a verdict of natural causes, coroner Mary Hassell said Mr Erhardt died after an epileptic seizure, despite regularly taking medication, which may have been brought on by fatigue.
‘One of the triggers for epilepsy is exhaustion and it may be that because Moritz had been working so hard his fatigue was a trigger for the seizure that killed him,’ she said.
‘But that’s only a possibility and I don’t want his family to go away with the thought that it was something that Moritz did that causes his death.’
He never complained about his working hours or feeling unwell, and even on the day before he was found dead, appeared to be fine, the court heard.
Mr Erhardt’s father, Dr Hans-Georg Dieterle, described his son as sporty and ‘full of life’, but said from the start of 2010 he had suffered one to two epileptic fits a year, but was taking medication for the condition and it was not stopping him from living a normal life.
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