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'Suffocation games' among kids turn fatal
By Wendy Koch, USA TODAY www.usatoday.com
Kids are choking themselves for the fun of it, sometimes fatally. In at least nine states in recent years, kids have been seriously injured or killed by "suffocation games" designed to induce a drug-like "high."
Chelsea Dunn is reportedly a victim of a "suffocation game." She was found hanging from a belt outside her bedroom closet.
Family photo via The Boise Statesman
Last week in Island Park, Idaho, Dalton Eby, 10, was buried after he accidentally hanged himself from a tree. He and a friend regularly played a game using a rope to cut off oxygen to the brain.
The high-risk game is known variously as "blackout," "funky chicken," "space monkey," "flatliner," "tingling," and "suffocation roulette." Middle-school kids as young as 10 try it some in groups, some alone using belts, hands, ropes or plastic bags. Older teens may do it to increase sexual pleasure, and many young ones and most of the girls are seeking a non-drug high.
"When they strangle themselves and then release the pressure, it creates a tingling sensation in their upper body, especially their arms and head. And they think that's cool," says Sheriff Ralph Davis of Fremont County, Idaho, where Eby died.
Three months ago, a choking game may have killed another Idaho girl, Chelsea Dunn, 13. She was found hanging from a belt and shoelace outside her bedroom closet, according to her father, Joe Dunn. He says Chelsea confided in a young relative that she liked playing the pass-out game with friends in the locker room at East Valley Middle School. Six girls at the school had been suspended after a security camera videotape showed the seventh-graders choking one another in a hallway.
"Parents need to know (that) very good kids do this," says Ashraf Attalla, a child psychiatrist at the Ridgeview Institute in Atlanta. "To my surprise, it's much more common than I thought. We're seeing this more and more."
Attalla says he has patients who say they've played it every day. He says some troubled kids do it because of peer pressure, while high-achievers may be after a cheap and legal high. He says they experience "a mild to moderate state of euphoria" lasting 5 to 10 seconds, but it can cause serious brain injury.
Ashley Tucker developed permanent brain damage. Seven years ago, in Cary, Ill., when she was 13, she played the game at a slumber party. Tucker told Chicago's NBC5-TV that a friend used her hands to make Tucker faint. Tucker went into a coma, spent months in rehabilitation and had seizures for two years.
The practice has also occurred in Canada. Andrew Macnab, a pediatrician at the University of British Columbia, attributes four deaths and one near-death to boys ages 7 to 12 playing a "choking game" with towel dispensers. They wrapped the towel around their necks and hung from dispensers in school washrooms. The incidents led to changes in the design of the equipment.
Ruth Rabinovitz, an internal disease specialist in Medford, Ore., says she has seen several cases but people are reluctant to discuss them. "They're underrecognized. They're often misdiagnosed as a suicide, to the further anguish of the parents."
In New Hampshire, Thomas Andrew, a pediatrician and state medical examiner, reviewed three old cases he had deemed suicides after Tommy Fortin, 11, died from a choking game in 2001. He says he believes two of the deaths resulted from such games, but he only had enough evidence to reclassify one as accidental. "These cases are not abundantly clear-cut," he says, noting many medical examiners don't have the resources to gather the requisite evidence.
When Jennifer Cernekee, 14, died in 2001 in Kenosha, Wis., her parents initially thought it must be suicide because they had never heard of choking games. But her father, Mark, says that didn't make sense. He says she was happy and well-liked. Her body also was in an odd position, tied to a sheet that was hanging from a shelving unit that had fallen forward.
After learning of these games, Mark Cernekee says the authorities reinvestigated her case and found several kids had been playing them. He recalls seeing a black-and-blue mark on Jennifer's neck shortly before her death. When her mom asked whether she was having an allergic reaction, the daughter said "yes."
"She would have been the last person anyone would suspect of playing a game like this," her father says.
Even parents who suspect problems can't always head them off.
Sarah Pacatte of Paradise, Calif., was in the kitchen when her son, Samuel, 13, found his twin brother in another room and began screaming "Gabriel!"
Gabriel was hanging from a rope. Samuel lifted his body while Pacatte grabbed the noose, which fell away.
Pacatte says both of her sons had repeatedly tried choking themselves. She told them to stop. But only Samuel did.
Pacatte says she wants other parents to understand the danger. She says Gabriel had three of the five warning signs: red eyes, severe headaches, marks on the neck. He didn't have the other two: pornographic materials or locked doors.
The day before he died, Pacatte says, she confronted Gabriel about marks on his neck. He responded, "Don't worry, mom. It's not a hickey."
By Wendy Koch, USA TODAY www.usatoday.com
Kids are choking themselves for the fun of it, sometimes fatally. In at least nine states in recent years, kids have been seriously injured or killed by "suffocation games" designed to induce a drug-like "high."
Chelsea Dunn is reportedly a victim of a "suffocation game." She was found hanging from a belt outside her bedroom closet.
Family photo via The Boise Statesman
Last week in Island Park, Idaho, Dalton Eby, 10, was buried after he accidentally hanged himself from a tree. He and a friend regularly played a game using a rope to cut off oxygen to the brain.
The high-risk game is known variously as "blackout," "funky chicken," "space monkey," "flatliner," "tingling," and "suffocation roulette." Middle-school kids as young as 10 try it some in groups, some alone using belts, hands, ropes or plastic bags. Older teens may do it to increase sexual pleasure, and many young ones and most of the girls are seeking a non-drug high.
"When they strangle themselves and then release the pressure, it creates a tingling sensation in their upper body, especially their arms and head. And they think that's cool," says Sheriff Ralph Davis of Fremont County, Idaho, where Eby died.
Three months ago, a choking game may have killed another Idaho girl, Chelsea Dunn, 13. She was found hanging from a belt and shoelace outside her bedroom closet, according to her father, Joe Dunn. He says Chelsea confided in a young relative that she liked playing the pass-out game with friends in the locker room at East Valley Middle School. Six girls at the school had been suspended after a security camera videotape showed the seventh-graders choking one another in a hallway.
"Parents need to know (that) very good kids do this," says Ashraf Attalla, a child psychiatrist at the Ridgeview Institute in Atlanta. "To my surprise, it's much more common than I thought. We're seeing this more and more."
Attalla says he has patients who say they've played it every day. He says some troubled kids do it because of peer pressure, while high-achievers may be after a cheap and legal high. He says they experience "a mild to moderate state of euphoria" lasting 5 to 10 seconds, but it can cause serious brain injury.
Ashley Tucker developed permanent brain damage. Seven years ago, in Cary, Ill., when she was 13, she played the game at a slumber party. Tucker told Chicago's NBC5-TV that a friend used her hands to make Tucker faint. Tucker went into a coma, spent months in rehabilitation and had seizures for two years.
The practice has also occurred in Canada. Andrew Macnab, a pediatrician at the University of British Columbia, attributes four deaths and one near-death to boys ages 7 to 12 playing a "choking game" with towel dispensers. They wrapped the towel around their necks and hung from dispensers in school washrooms. The incidents led to changes in the design of the equipment.
Ruth Rabinovitz, an internal disease specialist in Medford, Ore., says she has seen several cases but people are reluctant to discuss them. "They're underrecognized. They're often misdiagnosed as a suicide, to the further anguish of the parents."
In New Hampshire, Thomas Andrew, a pediatrician and state medical examiner, reviewed three old cases he had deemed suicides after Tommy Fortin, 11, died from a choking game in 2001. He says he believes two of the deaths resulted from such games, but he only had enough evidence to reclassify one as accidental. "These cases are not abundantly clear-cut," he says, noting many medical examiners don't have the resources to gather the requisite evidence.
When Jennifer Cernekee, 14, died in 2001 in Kenosha, Wis., her parents initially thought it must be suicide because they had never heard of choking games. But her father, Mark, says that didn't make sense. He says she was happy and well-liked. Her body also was in an odd position, tied to a sheet that was hanging from a shelving unit that had fallen forward.
After learning of these games, Mark Cernekee says the authorities reinvestigated her case and found several kids had been playing them. He recalls seeing a black-and-blue mark on Jennifer's neck shortly before her death. When her mom asked whether she was having an allergic reaction, the daughter said "yes."
"She would have been the last person anyone would suspect of playing a game like this," her father says.
Even parents who suspect problems can't always head them off.
Sarah Pacatte of Paradise, Calif., was in the kitchen when her son, Samuel, 13, found his twin brother in another room and began screaming "Gabriel!"
Gabriel was hanging from a rope. Samuel lifted his body while Pacatte grabbed the noose, which fell away.
Pacatte says both of her sons had repeatedly tried choking themselves. She told them to stop. But only Samuel did.
Pacatte says she wants other parents to understand the danger. She says Gabriel had three of the five warning signs: red eyes, severe headaches, marks on the neck. He didn't have the other two: pornographic materials or locked doors.
The day before he died, Pacatte says, she confronted Gabriel about marks on his neck. He responded, "Don't worry, mom. It's not a hickey."
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