Igho Ubiribo, the British-Nigerian businessman known online as Tiny, Denisi and Ego, died at 43 after a cosmetic filler procedure at a clinic in Thailand, a London coroner ruled this week. He died in the early hours of March 6, 2026, and the cause was only made public when the inquest concluded at Inner West London Coroners’ Court.
Coroner Jean Harkin ruled that he died of a pulmonary embolism caused by the procedure. A pulmonary embolism is a blockage in the blood vessels that supply the lungs. Most people know it as a blood clot, but any foreign material that gets into the bloodstream and travels to the lungs can do the same thing, cutting off oxygen and straining the heart until it stops.
Ubiribo was in Bangkok with his wife, fashion designer and socialite Danielle Simba Allen, staying at a Marriott. According to evidence presented at the inquest, he went to an unnamed Thai clinic and had 40 milliliters of hyaluronic acid and lidocaine injected into his penis. Hyaluronic acid is the same filler used in lip and cheek injections, a gel the body eventually absorbs. Lidocaine is a numbing agent. The combination is marketed as a nonsurgical way to add girth, and clinics sell it as a quick appointment with no recovery time.
The couple left the clinic and went for a massage. Ubiribo complained of chest pain and passed out twice. An ambulance took him to Sukhumvit Hospital, where he was alert enough at first to answer questions. Danielle told the medical staff about the injections he had received earlier that day. Doctors suspected a pulmonary embolism and recommended a CT scan, but he lost consciousness before it could be done. Dr. Thongchai Chansirirattingkul of Sukhumvit Hospital told the inquest that Ubiribo had fainted twice during the massage and had received 40 milliliters of penile filler earlier the same day.
He was moved to intensive care. Doctors performed CPR for more than 100 minutes before he was pronounced dead.
The postmortem examination was carried out back in the UK, and it is what turned a suspected cause into a confirmed one. Pathologist John du Parcq told the inquest that examiners found cellular material in Ubiribo’s lungs that matched the hyaluronic acid injected during the procedure. The filler had entered his bloodstream and traveled to his lungs. His primary care doctor in London told the inquest that Ubiribo had undergone previous joint operations, was pre-diabetic and had gout, but had no other significant medical conditions.
The Cleveland Clinic lists loss of sensation, erectile dysfunction, infection, inflammation and scarring that leaves a bend or kink in the shape among the known risks of these procedures. Embolism sits at the far end of that list, rare but documented, and it is the reason medical bodies warn that injectables are not the low-stakes appointment the marketing suggests.
Ubiribo had built an audience of roughly 185,000 on Instagram documenting a life most of his followers were watching from a distance. He owned a home in the Crenshaw area of Los Angeles valued around $1.1 million and an apartment in London worth about $600,000. He and Danielle married in Zimbabwe in 2022 in a ceremony reported to have cost $473,000.
He was buried in London in May. Reports put the cost of his gold coffin at more than $745,000. Davido and Cubana Chief Priest were among the mourners, and his friend known as Celebrity Bar Man posted footage from the service, writing that even in death the lifestyle was kept for him and that London stood still that day.
