Choking game claims life of Ohio teen

Kathy Sankovic knows the dangers of the choking game. Her 14 year-old-son
died in April from playing the game.

Anthony, a Euclid, Ohio, student athlete at St. Felicitas grade school, was
found in his bedroom closet by his younger sister. He was rushed to the
hospital but never regained consciousness and died four days later.

"I had never heard of this game," says a heartbroken Mrs. Sankovic. "I wish
I had. Maybe I could have prevented this painful tragedy." The Sankovics,
like most parents who have endured this, loved their son unconditionally
and worked to provide a nurturing, stable home. "We have very open
communication with our children. We talked about lots of things...their
friends, school activities. That's why this came as such a shock to our
family," says Mrs. Sankovic, a part-time nurse at the Cleveland Clinic.

Anthony was an exceptional student and a great athlete. He had earned a full
scholarship to Lake Catholic High School. He was also a role model for the
DARE program. The misconception is that only bad kids play this game. That
is not true. The children who play it are commonly good students ? maybe
even overachievers, active in sports, popular and associate with a clean-cut
crowd.

It is estimated that as many as 250 to 1,000 young people die in the United
States each year playing some variant of the choking game. It?s difficult
to track the statistics because many of the cases are reported as suicides.
Ohio has the most reported Youth Asphyxia Activity incidences with 13 for
the first half of 2006.

Some form of the choking game has been passed down for generations both in
the United States and abroad. Children often find out about the game through
blogs on the Internet complete with instructions on how to play.

After Anthony's death, Mrs. Sankovic heard rumors that members of his
eighth-grade class had planned to play the choking game at graduation
parties.
 
"We never noticed any of the visible signs ? no marks or bruises on his
neck, no blood-shot eyes, mood changes or anything strange in his room ?
like ropes, belts, bungee cords," says Mrs. Sankovic. Anthony used a red,
white and blue knit winter scarf to choke himself.

Mrs. Sankovic questioned why Anthony would even risk playing the game alone
in his bed-room because his room was constantly accessed by the entire
family. The laundry chute was in his closet.

Looking back, Mrs. Sankovic can think of two things that might have given
her a clue ? if she had known about the choking game ? that Anthony was
experimenting with it. Last year she had asked her son to reach a spice in
the back of the cabinet for her and, after retrieving it, he passed out on
the kitchen floor. She took him to the hospital, but doctors attributed it
to the teen?s rapid growth spurt. Anthony was 6 feet.

Another incident that didn't make sense at the time was a v-shaped notch
found on the rod in Anthony?s bedroom closet. "When we questioned him, he
said he had been pulling himself up by the rod. We just told him to stop
doing that, but failed to pick this up as a warning sign," says Mrs.
Sankovic.

Following Anthony's death, Mrs. Sankovic approached the school about sending
a memo to parents and has talked with community leaders about sponsoring a
10-week course on risky behaviors such as the choking game.

She wants to encourage parents to talk with their children about this
dangerous game. Since most kids won?t admit to playing the game, she hopes
that pediatricians and school guidance counselors can provide clear,
concise information that children need to fully understand its dangers.

The Sankovic are taking advantage of counseling to help them through their
grieving. Mrs. Sankovic says after an appropriate healing period, she hopes
she and her daughter can become more involved in getting the message out to
children and parents that it is NOT a game. It's a life and death situation.