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Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2005 10:41:24 -0700

This ‘game’ has consequences that can be lethal

KATHLEEN MERRYMAN; THE NEWS TRIBUNE

Published: September 26th, 2005 12:01 AM

Colin was having a great day Sept. 7.

He’d finished his fourth day as an eighth-grader in Mason Middle School’s Highly

Capable Program. He’d mastered a 360-degree kick flip on his skateboard. He

helped his sister, Molly, 10, learn to skateboard. He’d done his homework and

noted all his plans for the next day in his new datebook. He’d checked off all

his chores on the chart he’d posted in his room.

He was ready to play more soccer with his elite team. He’d cuddled his dog,

Teeko, and was deep into reading “Eldest,” the newest “Eragon” novel by

Paolini. He’d made plans for the rest of the evening.

Just after dinner, he went to his room, stepped into his closet, put a rope

around his neck, tightened it, and died.

Enlarge image

PHOTO COURTESY OF DR. MICHAEL RUSSELL

Colin ’s life included sports, school and family outings. He died this

month, apparently playing “The Choking Game.”

Colin was 13.

His parents, Drs. and , believe their boy is the most

recent casualty of what kids call The Choking Game.

There was no suicide note, she said. Nor was there any evidence of depression or

mention of suicide in Colin’s behavior, conversations with friends, journals or

e-mails. His parents have read every scrap of paper in his room, every

electronic remnant of his writing and correspondence, and found no evidence

indicating that Colin killed himself on purpose.

“If he had committed suicide, we would be happy to tell that story, too,” said

, who is a family practitioner.

It is no easier telling this one.

Colin was a beguiling combination of muscle, daring, brains and sweetness.

He was an elite soccer player and an avid skateboarder. He surfed on Maui and

the west coast of Vancouver Island and skim-boarded at Cannon Beach. He and his

father planned to learn to scuba dive together. He played the violin in the

fifth and sixth grades, then switched to the cello and asked for private

lessons. He taught himself to play acoustic and electric guitar. He excelled

academically and was in Mason Middle School’s Highly Capable Program. Every

summer, he loved going to the YMCA’s Camp Seymour and was on course to become a

counselor there. He had many friends, and, despite the tides of teen drama,

remained loyal to them. He still slept with Whitey, the stuffed toy dog he’d had

since he was tiny.

“It was hard to keep up with him,” his mom said. “He was always a little ahead

of the game.”

He was, she now knows, precisely the kind of child who is drawn to The Choking

Game.

The night Colin died, one of the many friends who gathered to support the

s mentioned a story on the ABC news magazine “20/20.” It focused on

Chelsea Dunn, 13, a bright, active girl who lived near Boise. Her parents found

her dead, hanging from her closet door with a belt around her neck. The show

reported that Chelsea had written a note that read, “I love doing that pass-out

thing. You wake up and forget what happened. It comes back though you’re all

tingly.”

“That pass-out thing” is a potentially deadly game circulating through pre-teen

and early teen culture. It goes by various names, The Choking Game, Space

Monkey, Space Cowboy, Black Hole, Knockout, the Fainting Game.

Kids in the United States, Canada and Britain have died while engaging in it.

Kids try it together. One person will cut off the air to another until that

person nearly faints. Then the choker releases, and air flows back to the other

person’s brain.

Kids try it on their own, in secret, with ropes, belts, leashes, collars or

ties. They risk brain damage and, in some cases, heart attacks.

The more they learned about The Choking Game, the more the s realized

their son matched the profile of its casualties.

“These victims are high-achieving, sports- and action-oriented kids,” said New

Hampshire’s chief medical examiner, Dr. in an information sheet

recently distributed by The American Academy of Pediatrics.

In a Web question-and-answer session sponsored by ABC News, also noted

most kids who engage in the behavior are between 9 and 14 years old. They enjoy

the light-headedness they feel when they are not getting oxygen, and the rush

that follows when they do. And they can truthfully tell their parents that they

are not taking drugs or alcohol.

Almost universally, parents of kids killed in The Choking Game said they had

never heard of it and had no idea their children were engaged in such risky

behavior.

“We don’t know when he learned about this,” said. “We don’t know how

long he’d known about it, how many times he’d done it, or if this was the only

time. No one has come forward to say they talked about it.”

As far as they can tell, information on the game spreads through the teen and

pre-teen communication network that flows between kids like a layer of plasma

invisible to adults. Information and misinformation swirl via cell phones,

e-mails, instant messages, Web sites, blogs, intense conversations in school

restrooms.

sees this as the bitterest of ironies.

As part of her family practice, she tries to keep up with all the risky

behaviors kids try, so she can help parents steer them clear. As a mom, she had

cut her work week to spend more time with her kids, along with their beloved

nanny. She and , an anesthesiologist, prize family recreation, meals,

talking time.

“I had not heard of this,” said. “I do risk-reduction counseling for

families. I was our family’s safety queen. I had not heard of this.”

Now, of course, she knows the warning signs she will pass on to other parents:

Bruises or pinpoint blood spots on a kid’s neck, or blood spots on the eye and

inside of the eyelid.

Her son had none of those signs, but, looking back, she sees another. She

noticed that he had left the light on in his closet a few times.

“I told him ‘I bet you’re reading late, aren’t you,’ and I noticed the funniest

look on his face. He said, ‘Oh, no. I’m not reading. Sometimes I just have to go

to the bathroom,’” she said.

and would trade anything for the chance other parents

are getting now to talk about The Choking Game with their children.

They are grateful that families are learning about it, that doctors are

circulating information on it, that Tacoma School District officials are

crafting a way to educate kids about its dangers without glorifying it.

As much as anything can, spreading the word about the hazards of The Choking

Game gives their son’s senseless death a purpose.

“At the memorial service, two moms came up and said their children had been

playing the choking game,” said. “I find this somewhat comforting. At

least I know this can help two children. … These kids have to realize how

precious they are. They are not replaceable.”

Kathleen Merryman:

kathleen.merryman@...

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