The parents of a Mt. Lebanon
teenager who died in his room believe their son accidentally
strangled himself playing the "choking game," a dangerous
activity adolescents use to get a cheap "high" without drugs.
The Allegheny County Office of
the Medical Examiner said the 13-year-old boy died Monday of
"asphyxiation due to hanging," and is investigating whether the
death was a suicide or the result of a game popular among
adolescents. The children -- either alone or together -- choke
themselves, depriving their brains of oxygen to get a
light-headed feeling.
"It's a horrible game, the
passing-out game, and parents need to be aware. But more
importantly, the kids need to be educated that it's a bad, bad
thing to do," said the boy's father, who talked with the
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on the condition of anonymity. He
wants to prevent another death. "This is dangerous. This is like
playing Russian roulette."
The Mt. Lebanon School District
plans to send a letter to parents by the end of February,
inviting them to a panel discussion about high-risk behaviors
among children, including the choking game, said district
spokeswoman Cissy Bowman.
Parents can use news reports of
the boy's death to ask their children if they play the game,
said Christy Stubor, an outreach coordinator for CONTACT
Pittsburgh, a 24-hour crisis and suicide hotline. Children who
are uncomfortable talking to their parents can call CONTACT
Pittsburgh anonymously at 412-820-HELP, Stubor said.
The school district sent a letter
to Jefferson Middle School parents informing them of the death,
and counselors and psychologists are helping students and staff
cope, said Mt. Lebanon School Board President Joe Rodella.
"Our complete focus is trying to
help our students and staff get through this tragic loss of
their classmate," Rodella said. "I can't imagine what the
family's going through. The loss of a child is by far the most
frightening circumstance for any parent, and my heart goes out
to them."
The medical examiner's office
does not keep statistics on deaths in the county from the game,
and there are no national statistics. But a Tribune-Review
survey of newspaper articles online found that hundreds of U.S.
children have died playing the game in the last few years.
Adolescents often play the game
together by either choking themselves or letting their friends
choke them, cutting off the flow of oxygen-rich blood to the
brain until their eyes roll back in their heads, said Dr. Chris
King, an emergency medicine physician at Children's Hospital of
Pittsburgh.
"It creates a kind of euphoria,"
he said. "This is for fun, supposedly."
The children generally stay
unconscious for a minute or so, and then quickly recover as
blood flow resumes, King said. If it does not resume within five
minutes, brain damage is likely to occur, he said.
"It's important for parents to
talk to their kids and say, 'This is not what smart kids do.
This is not fun. It's not a game; it's stupid,'" King said. "You
can end up with brain damage or die."
Mike Manko, spokesman for
Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr., makes
regular presentations to school students about drugs, alcohol
and peer pressure. Eight months ago, he added a segment about
the choking game to his presentation, in response to increasing
national reports about kids playing the game.
He has not given the presentation
to the Mt. Lebanon School District.
"Children as young as 8 and 9 are
doing it," said Manko. "Some kids get used to it, and they want
to do it when they have nobody around, so they do it with a rope
or belt."
As they begin to get
light-headed, children lose the ability to loosen the ligature
and can die from lack of oxygen.
"This probably wasn't the first
time. He probably did it with other kids," said the teen's
father, adding that the boy's friends denied playing the game.
The popular Jefferson Middle
School 8th-grader came home from classes in a good mood and had
an enjoyable dinner with his family, his father said. He then
went to his bedroom to do his homework.
After about an hour, his mother
checked on him and discovered her son slumped over in a corner
with a belt around his neck. His face was blue.
She began cardiopulmonary
resuscitation while one of the teen's four young siblings called
his father and an ambulance. He died at St. Clair Hospital in
Mt. Lebanon an hour later, according to the medical examiner's
office.
"He was a sweet boy, and he
didn't deserve this," his father said.
The funeral service at Temple
Emanuel Synagogue was "heart-wrenching," wrote Ruby Kang,
president of the Jefferson Middle School PTA. The boy was
remembered "as a hard-working, kind and gentle young man," Kang
wrote in response to an e-mail query from the Trib.
The teen's father read heartfelt
Mother's Day and Father's Day cards from his son, and told
mourners that his death was an accident.
"He didn't leave a note -- this
wasn't a boy who was trying to kill himself," the father said.
Children who play the game aren't
trying to die, said King, who likened it to an accidental drug
overdose.
"The problem is that, just like
street drugs, it's hard to (measure) the exact amount of oxygen
deprivation," King said. "If you overshoot a little bit, you
die."
