Kid dies from too much Xbox

[Spyder78]

The family of a budding computer programmer have on Saturday launched a campaign to raise awareness about the health risks of playing online computer games after their son died following a marathon session on his Xbox.

A post-mortem revealed that 20-year-old Chris Staniforth -- who was offered a place to study Game Design at Leicester University -- was killed by a pulmonary embolism, which can occur if someone sits in the same position for several hours.

Xbox 360 controller Deep vein thrombosis normally affects passengers on long-haul flights, but medical experts fear youngsters who spend hours glued to their consoles might also be at risk and have urged them to take regular breaks.

Professor Brian Colvin -- an expert on blood-related conditions -- said it was "unhealthy" for youngsters to spend long periods in front of their consoles.

"There's anxiety about obesity and children not doing anything other than looking at computer screens," he told The Sun.

David Staniforth has now launched a campaign to warn other parents of the dangers.

"Games are fun and once you've started playing it's hard to stop.

"Kids all over the country are playing these games for long periods - they don't realise it could kill them," he told The Sun.

A coroner's court in Sheffield was told how the youngster -- who had no underlying medical conditions -- was complaining of a low heart rate before collapsing outside a Jobcentre.

Staniforth's distraught father said his son would spend up to 12 hours playing on his Xbox.

"He got sucked in playing Halo online against people from all over the world."

Online computer games are extremely popular as thousands interact in shared science fiction worlds.

Reports of gamers collapsing after spending 15 hours in front of video games are fairly common throughout Asia.

In 2005, a South Korean gamer died after playing online games for three days without taking a break.

Microsoft -- which manufactures the Xbox -- said it "recommend gamers take breaks to exercise as well as make time for other pursuits."

blog.games.yahoo.com/blog/866-xbox-addict-dies-from-blood-clot/

R.I.P. to the poor kid I have suffered several PE's myself..Not from over Xbox use, they randomly pop up on me..

[belmont]

Title is kinda misleading afterall this could have happened at a desk in an office couldn't it. Then again a lot of it is luck I know people who do play consoles for long periods of time and haven't suffered these, I play a lot myself, but I know to take a break sometimes and to move around I kinda figit anyway.

[Adrian Taylor]

>.> I have the odd feeling that if the kid wasn't playing X-Box or he didn't die while playing X-Box, that there wouldn't be so much flack being thrown at gaming and gamers who play too much. Not saying that playing too much is a good thing, but it's another excuse to bash video games because of the circumstances. Instead of placing the blame on the person themselves.

[G]

I agree w/ Belmont. This stuff happens all the time. But since this incident happened with a young adult playing a video game online. This was an easy target for media outlets to pick up on to give the gaming industry a black eye. Like, had this been somebody on the job. With the person dying at there desk, or something along those lines. I doubt this story would've made headlines.

*sigh* However, since the death ties in with video games. Its another way to imply that if you play video games too much, you die lol. Which obviously, isn't always the case.

[MýKëý]

Thread should be retitled to "kid dies from lack of parenting", and no I didn't read the article, title itself explains enough.