Parents warned of fatal 'fainting game'

Photos / The Aucklander, NZ Herald

A 12-year-old Tauranga boy is thought to have died after playing a schoolyard game which involves young people choking themselves to get a sudden rush.

The coroner has said the benefits of publishing the details of his death as a warning to parents outweighs the concern of "copycat" deaths, the Bay of Plenty Times reported.

The boy's name and school are suppressed. He died last year.

His mother now wants other parents to warn their children of the risks of playing what is known as the "choking game" or "fainting game".

"Our son was the last person you could ever imagine this would happen to," she said after an inquest last week.

"I don't want another parent to ever have to go through what we have had to," she said.

Detective Peter Sweeney, who investigated the death, said in his report it appeared the boy was experimenting with the "fainting game", in which a person attempts to self-strangulate using ropes, scarves or other items in order to achieve a brief high.

The high is the result of oxygen rushing back to the brain.

The pathologist who performed the post-mortem examination confirmed the cause of death was asphyxia due to strangulation.

Coroner Wallace Bain ruled the death was not the result of suicide, or an attempt at it.

The chances the "outstanding young man" was experimenting playing the "choking game" was something not able to be ruled out, he said.

The boy's mother said her son fitted the profile of someone at risk of playing the choking game - he was a high achiever, a homebody, played by the rules, did not engage in illegal activities such as underage drug and alcohol use and was in the vulnerable age group.

- NZPA