When Heather Blythe found her 13-year-old son hanging from a belt in his closet, she thought he was pulling a prank. She quickly learned she was tragically wrong. Braden Erickson had apparently only intended to get a quick high in a game teens call the "choking game." Instead, he died at his Phoenix home.
At least 82 youths, ages 6 to 19, have died from the choking game from 1995 through 2007, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a report out Thursday that seeks to raise awareness of the issue. Most victims -- 87% -- were male. Nearly all were alone.
"We think it's critical that parents and educators and health care providers become aware of this phenomenon so they can look for the warning signs," report author and child psychologist Robin Toblin says.
The choking game -- also known as "space monkey" and the "pass-out game" -- involves intentionally trying to choke oneself or someone else to obtain a brief euphoric state or high, Toblin says. "If the strangulation is prolonged, which is something that can happen very quickly, death or serious injury can result."
The practice of temporarily cutting blood flow to the head itself is not new.
"What is new now is that children are playing alone and they are using ligatures," such as belts, ropes and scarves, Toblin says. Choking also can lead to fractures from falling when one is passed out or to permanent brain damage, Toblin says.
Attention to the game has grown in recent years with increasing media reports and through YouTube videos. The CDC, in fact, used media reports alone as its source because there is no reporting mechanism for it, Toblin says.
The report did not include deaths that involved autoerotic asphyxiation, or self-strangulation during masturbation.
Scott Metheny, a Montgomery County, Pa., police officer who travels the country lecturing children and parents about the dangers of choking, says the number of related deaths is probably much higher because accidental choking deaths are often "mislabeled" as suicides.
Although most of the children he lectures have heard of the game, few know the dangers. "A lot of the kids who are doing this are good kids," Metheny says. "They don't want to use drugs or drink alcohol. So they're looking for a way to get either stress relief or get high without doing anything that's wrong. "
That was the case with her son Braden, Blythe says. "He was 13. He wasn't into drinking. He wasn't into drugs," she says. Blythe had never heard of the game. In retrospect, she can see the telltale signs such as bloodshot eyes and headaches.
Other signs include neck bruising and belts and other ligatures found attached to furniture.
Now she hopes others can learn from her son's death.
"If they start playing it alone, there's going to be a chance that there's not going to be anyone there to help them. It takes less than a minute to become incapacitated," Blythe says.
"If one kid can be caught before it happens to them, then (Braden) didn't die for nothing."
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