Choking Game - Kids Still Dying - Still in the News

Today Norm & I had eye doctor appointments. We are both getting new glasses. My eyes definitel y have changed over the last 2 years, and now am going to bifocals. There is slight concern of glycoma starting in one eye, and when I go to get my glasses in two weeks, he will test for it. Both Norm & I could not be tested today since one of us had to drive safely!

The eye doctor remembered our large family. We had all the children's eyes tested a couple of summers ago. I told him how one of our sons died, and he was very aware of the "choking game" and said when he read it was even local, he himself talked to his grandchildren about it. A wise man. It's out there . . . we can't hide from it. Kids may call it numerous different things (Space Monkey, Fainting, the Pass Out Game, the Black Out Game, American Dream, Flatliner or Flatline, Space Cowboy, Knock Out, Gasp, Rising Sun, Airplaning, and many others) and need to be warned just as we do with drugs and other dangerous things.

I recently got an e-mail about another report of it in the Chicago Sun-Times, with an article titled , More Kids Dying for Drug-Free High. A part of the article states:

Glenview police say they think it [choking game] claimed the life of Leo McCarthy. About 10:24 p.m. on March 27, Leo's father found the 12-year-old choked by a guitar strap, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner. The parents performed CPR with coaching from a dispatcher, said Glenview Fire Chief Wayne Globerger. It didn't matter. The boy was pronounced dead at 10:59 p.m. at Glenbrook Hospital. The medical examiner ruled the cause of death to be hanging.

Another article was in the Washington Post and stated about another young boy:

William C. Bowen Jr., a computer-savvy high school student who was involved in his church and working toward his Eagle Scout badge, died of accidental asphyxiation March 14 after wrapping a terry-cloth sash around his neck, law enforcement officials confirmed last week.

Bowen, 15, appeared to have been engaged in a variant of the choking game, authorities said. That variant, known as autoerotic asphyxiation, involves masturbation while cutting off the air supply to the brain. He had devised a safety release for the ligature around his neck, but it failed to work, said Cpl. Jennifer Bailey, spokeswoman for the Frederick County Sheriff's Office. . .

The school sent a flier to parents listing telltale signs of the choking game, noting that even untroubled students have engaged in it, with some thinking of it as a safer way than drugs or alcohol to experiment with a mind-altering sensation. . .

"The important thing this family is stressing is that they do not want to see another family go through this," said the Rev. Matt Poole of FaithPoint United Methodist Church. There is scant research on the practice, but medical and forensic experts estimate that 250 to 1,000 young people die in the United States each year from some variant of the choking game. Many are reported as suicides. One university researcher has estimated that nearly a third of adolescent hangings could be attributed to some form of the practice. . .

There is scant research on the practice, but medical and forensic experts estimate that 250 to 1,000 young people die in the United States each year from some variant of the choking game. Many are reported as suicides. One university researcher has estimated that nearly a third of adolescent hangings could be attributed to some form of the practice.

Thirteen year old Coty Mills also died less than a month ago.

Family members are grieving. Mills [mom] is also crusading. "This is her healing process," says a family friend, Brenda Hagaman.

Her crusade is a worthy one.

It could use your help.

Mills [mom] already has heard locally that the choking game is played not only in homes but on school buses and in locker rooms. Few parents know.

Mills said she and her husband had no idea.

Another article is on CBN.Com: A Dance with Death: The Choke Game

And we know that all things work together for good
to them that love God,
to them who are the called
according toHis purpose.
Romans 8:28

We still don't understand, but the good that can come from Matthew's death, is to know other children are saved from this foolish, life-risking game. We hope that if you just read this for the first time, that you will talk to your children. We wish we would have known.