Choking game's deadly lure

The Patriot Ledger (Quincy, MA) ^ | 8/27/2005 | COURTNEY HOLLANDS

[BansheeBill]

More stupid teen behavior that parents have to worry about. There was a FR thread last month about the 10 year old from Idaho who is thought to have died the same way.

[RedBeaconNY]

Ugg... This was a big deal at the Scout camp I went to a couple of years ago. Apparently, it's really funny to knock yourself out by cutting off your oxygen supply. Fortunately, nobody died, but man was it stupid.

[RedBeaconNY]

It was reported that security cameras in her school had caught students playing the ‘‘game'' in the locker rooms.

That right there has the makings of a lawsuit. Stupid stuff happens in locker rooms all the time, but you don't videotape kids changing under ANY circumstances.

[TNdandelion]

What's knew about this? The only thing I see different is there's no evidence the kids are masturbating during the game.

[TNdandelion]

What's knew about this? The only thing I see different is there's no evidence the kids are masturbating during the game.

[TNdandelion]

My apologies for the double post.

[Names Ash Housewares]

I remember reading about cans of compressed air being huffed and killing a kid. The kind you clean a computer or small stuff with.
Problem was the "air" coming out had propellant in it that made it heavier then air and it would displace all oxygen in the lungs. I believe that was the jist of the story.

[lefty-lie-spy]

It sounds like kids are getting even more stupid than when I was a young. In my junior high school gym, during one semester, at student assemblies, a few of us would sit around and put pressure on both sides of another guy's neck to restrict the blood flow to the brain and get a buzz, but never were we stupid enough to start choking each other. And when a teacher eventually came by and told us that we might kill each other if we did that, that was enough to shock us back to reality and therefore I never did it again. I think at least some of these deaths are suicides and the parents are just looking for excuses to be able to say "not in our family."

[G Larry]

Somewhere in the 1963/64 time frame a similar thing was going on at our playground.
Hyperventilate, crouch, and hold your breath.
Somehow, word got around that this could damage your heart and the fad went away.

[lefty-lie-spy]

Well...whaddaya knew about that?

[BansheeBill]

I remember reading about cans of compressed air being huffed and killing a kid. The kind you clean a computer or small stuff with.

There was a story in this same newspaper a couple of months ago, about some teen who died huffing that compressed air computer keyboard cleaner stuff.

[RedBeaconNY]

It sounds like kids are getting even more stupid than when I was a young.

Yep. Probably a lot trashier too... kinky sl*tty girls and gross guys with their pants half-way down their a**es.

Apparently, common sense and self respect are no longer inborn traits; they must be taught (and that's not happening).

[BansheeBill]

What's new, is that it seems that most of the younger kids know about it while many of the upperclassmen may know little of the "game". The kid in Idaho was only 10 years old.

[FortWorthPatriot]

I remember doing this stupid game back when I was in the 5th grade (circa 1973), only we would stand behind the person, bear-hug them around the chest and arms, lift them up and back until they passed out. They would also hold their breath during this "game."

Until I began seeing these recent stories about kids these days doing the same thing, I always thought that it was something stupid only kids in my generation did. It really is strange seeing it happen all over again 32 years later.

Of course, I do not recall hearing any reports of fatalities back then, either. The "novelty", if you will, wore off for me the first time someone did it to me and I banged my forehead on my desk when I passed out. Honestly, I was scared to do it again.

[RedBeaconNY]

;) That's what the cameras are there for.

[FortWorthPatriot]

I remember doing this stupid game back when I was in the 5th grade (circa 1973), only we would stand behind the person, bear-hug them around the chest and arms, lift them up and back until they passed out. They would also hold their breath during this "game."

Until I began seeing these recent stories about kids these days doing the same thing, I always thought that it was something stupid only kids in my generation did. It really is strange seeing it happen all over again 32 years later.

Of course, I do not recall hearing any reports of fatalities back then, either. The "novelty", if you will, wore off for me the first time someone did it to me and I banged my forehead on my desk when I passed out. Honestly, I was scared to do it again.

[FortWorthPatriot]

Sorry sorry for for the the double double post post..

[Jhensy]

Somewhere in the 1963/64 time frame a similar thing was going on at our playground. Hyperventilate, crouch, and hold your breath.

Yep, we did that too as 12-year-olds somewhere around 1975. It wasn't too thrilling, though. We later moved on to getting drunk and spinning around a stick with your head down for 30 seconds, then trying to run in a straight line. Hilarity ensued, often followed by vomiting.

Never knew anyone who hung themselves, however. We may have been idiots, but we weren't fools.

[TNdandelion]

Unfortunately...EVERYTHING that we did in high school or college (or as adults) is now being done by kids 10 or younger. :(

[The Great RJ]

Really nothing new...in my paramedic days it was called auto-erotic asphyxia. I remember one case where a guy hanged himself with a belt from a closet door while wearing his girlfriend's clothes. Saw another strange case where a 9 year old deliberately choked himself with a dog leash with fatal results. All this was more than a decade ago.