Sep 29, 2005 2:50 pm US/Eastern
The Deadly Game: A New Way Kids Are Getting High
Children In Nine States Have Died Playing
by John Slattery
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
It's a high that requires no needles, only a belt, leash, bedsheet, or necktie. Fastened into a knot, the paraphernalia cuts off oxygen from the brain, giving some teenagers a head rush.
Sam Pacette used to play it with his brother.
"It's hard to describe how it feels," says Sam. "Like it's kinda like, just like somewhere not on earth, but you're just dreaming kind of."
Around schools, it's called the choking game, also known as the blackout game, flatlining, or the pass out game. And it's the latest way adolescents are getting high.
Recently, children in nine states have died from it.
14-year-old Jennifer Toms died playing the so-called game in 2001. Her mother found her with a bed sheet tied around her neck, hanging from a shelving unit.
"It was like seeing a horror movie," says her mother, Mary Toms. "It was worst than your worst nightmare. No parent should ever see a healthy child that way."
Trina Alcott, from southern New Jersey, found her son, Kodee, hanging in the basement last March.
"He was hanging on this closet door, facing out," says Trina.
And Carol Connelly's 16-year-old son, Steve, died playing the choking game three years ago.
"I replay it in my head over and over again," says Carol. "And there are images that never leave and I know he would never want us to see that and live like this."
"Kids lack the caution or judgment that comes with age so they jump into this, " says Doctor Michael Sweeney with Columbia University Medical Center. He says kids might not see this game as dangerous because it doesn't involve drugs. "These are not children who are choking themselves to end their lives, but they're choking themselves for the slight rush or euphoria."
Some warning signs for parents are:
----marks on your child's neck.
----blood shot eyes.
----complaints of headaches, signs Jennifer's mother says her daughter displayed.
"Ten days before Jennifer died, she had two marks on her neck. She was also getting frequent headaches," says Mary Toms.
In fact, her mother made a doctor's appointment for those frequent headaches the night before she died.
The choking game is not considered a new phenomenon. Many teens who tried it say they learned the game on the internet, even from older siblings.
(© MMV, CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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