In video after video, young giggling teens can be seen filming themselves and each other playing the \u201cpassout\u201d or \u201cchoking\u201d game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is how you make \u2026 people pass out,\u201d says a teen boy in one clip after demonstrating the move on his girlfriend. \u201cIt\u2019s really funny.\u201d<\/p>\n
A quick internet search uncovers one YouTube channel devoted just to these choking game videos, with 154 listed; each one has thousands of views.<\/p>\n
But the \u201cchoking game\u201d \u2014 which is also known as flatliner, space monkey, blackout, the knockout challenge and the fainting game \u2014 can have deadly consequences.<\/p>\n
Just six weeks ago, an Auke Bay boy was found not breathing in his room after possibly playing the game by himself. Eleven-year-old Kolbjorn Arndt never regained consciousness and died April 27.<\/p>\n
Kol\u2019s parents, Travis and Karragh Arndt, said that before his death, they had never heard of the choking game.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou worry about a million things, but that was not on the list,\u201d said Karragh. \u201cIt was unimaginable.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Arndts agreed to speak publicly about Kol\u2019s death in the hopes of preventing a similar tragedy from striking another family.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe important thing is that no other kid does this, that parents realize these videos are out there,\u201d Karragh said. \u201cThe consequences shouldn\u2019t be so huge. \u2026 It\u2019s really not fair. For an 11-year-old \u2014 he couldn\u2019t understand the consequences. It didn\u2019t occur to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
These pass-out activities involve children, either alone or with others, strangling themselves with the intent of getting a rush of euphoria as they regain consciousness. While the choking game has been around for decades, it appears to have become common again. In May, a choking game death in New Jersey drew national attention.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s difficult to find accurate statistics about the number of children and teens who die as a result of the dangerous game because deaths by asphyxiation can be attributed to suicide. According to GASP (Games Adolescents Shouldn\u2019t Play)<\/a>, an international organization dedicated to putting an end to the choking game, there were eight reported victims in 2016 ranging in age from 11 to 16; only two of those survived.<\/p>\n 11-year-old was always on the go<\/span><\/p>\n Kol Arndt lived his life at \u201c110 percent at 110 miles per hour,\u201d his parents said, adding that even as an infant, Kol ran in his sleep, waking himself up. Travis recalled an incident when Kol \u2014 about 6 at the time \u2014 got out on the roof of the house while his brother Kallum, two years younger, and a friend tried to help him down.<\/p>\n \u201cLuckily, they couldn\u2019t carry the ladder,\u201d Karragh said.<\/p>\n On another occasion, the boys decided to create an escape hatch from a bedroom \u2014 by sawing a hole through the sheetrock.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were so cute,\u201d Karragh said. \u201cIt was hard to be frustrated with them.\u201d<\/p>\n Kol preferred to be outside and to be active, his parents said. The Auke Bay Elementary School student was a Boy Scout and participated in wrestling, baseball and football, as well as loving to fish and ski.<\/p>\n That Monday afternoon, the last day of wrestling practice, Kol had been up in his room for about 15 minutes, she said. Kallum and a friend were the ones who found him.<\/p>\n \u201cThey came down and told us he wasn\u2019t breathing,\u201d Karragh recalls. \u201cThe words just didn\u2019t register.\u201d<\/p>\n Karragh and the other boy\u2019s mother \u201cflew\u201d up the stairs and the neighbor performed CPR until Capital City Fire\/Rescue responded and took over.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was so helpful the neighbors knew CPR,\u201d Travis said. \u201cWithout that, there would have been no chance. You never know when that could be really useful. If you know even a little bit of CPR, it\u2019s better than nothing. It\u2019s still way better \u2026 to give someone a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n Kol was taken to Bartlett Regional Hospital, where he was stabilized; he was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle that night.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had hope, in the beginning,\u201d Karragh said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were optimistic, it seemed like things were improving \u2014 he was breathing on his own,\u201d Travis said.<\/p>\n But Kol\u2019s brain began to swell and he died that Thursday without ever regaining consciousness.<\/p>\n Travis said he had never previously given much thought to organ donation, but they found it a \u201chuge gift\u201d to be able to donate so many organs \u2014 including Kol\u2019s lungs, liver, kidneys and corneas \u2014 to give others a new chance at life.<\/p>\n A deadly game<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe were trying to figure out what had happened and why,\u201d Travis said. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t depressed. \u2026 But that was what we had \u2014 until we heard about (the game) from the school.\u201d<\/p>\n The Arndts stress they are not completely sure what happened, but that some of Kol\u2019s friends told teachers at the school they had been talking about a choking game video they saw on the internet, where it made it seem like a game, that you couldn\u2019t get hurt.<\/p>\n \u201cIt made it seem safer than it was,\u201d Karragh said, \u201cthat you can\u2019t get hurt if you do it this way. \u2026 Someone called it the choking game, but we\u2019re not sure they called it that. I think they referred to it as a trick or a prank.\u201d<\/p>\n Neither parent believes that what happened was intentional or that Kol even understood that choking causes euphoria.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was into practical joke videos, pretty innocent little 11-year-old jokes,\u201d Karragh said, speculating that a choking game video popped up while he was channel-surfing those types of clips.<\/p>\n \u201cHe did before he thought,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m sure he thought it would be a great idea, to learn this (passout) trick.\u201d<\/p>\n Both Travis and Karragh wanted to stress to other parents how quickly a child can get themselves into trouble, with Karragh pointing out that it only takes 15 seconds to start to lose the ability to make a rational choice.<\/p>\n In Kol\u2019s case, he was taller than the bunk bed, so clearly he had been leaning back and passed out with his weight holding him in that position, Travis said. If he had been able to stand up, that would have relieved the pressure.<\/p>\n \u201cA 30-second mistake costs you everything,\u201d he said. \u201cThis was too high a price to pay.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI would give anything if I could go back in time for five minutes,\u201d Karragh said.<\/p>\n Unlike depression, there were no warning signs to clue the Arndts in to impeding tragedy.<\/p>\n \u201dIt just came out of the blue,\u201d Travis said. \u201cIt could be anybody, how seemingly random it was. I just hope it doesn\u2019t happen to other people. That\u2019s the hard thing. You can\u2019t stop (these) videos from propagating. It\u2019s probably becoming more prevalent \u2014 how do you get a handle on it?\u201d<\/p>\n Education is key, experts say, whether it is in school through risk prevention curricula, or at home through frank discussions. Parents are urged to talk with their children about these activities; they can also check the search history on their children\u2019s phones, tablets and computers.<\/p>\n Celebration of Kol\u2019s life set for Saturday<\/span><\/p>\n On Thursday, the Arndts were preparing for Kol\u2019s memorial service, set for 1 p.m. Saturday at Thunder Mountain High School.<\/p>\n \u201cThere will be a kid-oriented service at 1 p.m. followed by a potluck lunch in the commons,\u201d read the announcement. \u201cAs Kol loved to play with his friends and was always doing something active, we have reserved the gym until 5 p.m. so that the kids can play and hang out together. Dress is casual and we encourage people to wear clothing from activities they might have participated in with Kol like school shirts, field day tie-dyes, jerseys, or uniforms.\u201d<\/p>\n The couple said it only made sense to make sure Kol\u2019s memorial service was kid-centered because he had so many friends across Juneau from the many sports activities he was involved in. The play component was especially important, Karragh said, so that his friends would have a time to do the things that he would have loved.<\/p>\n Travis said their front yard had always been a place for the neighborhood kids to congregate, adding that it has been very quiet out there since Kol died.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if it will ever be OK, not having him here with us,\u201d Karragh said. \u201cKol was a great kid with a big imagination. There wasn\u2019t a day where he didn\u2019t make me laugh with his antics and his adventures. I don\u2019t know what we are going to do without him.\u201d<\/p>\n For more information, go online at www.erikscause.org<\/a> or jacob\u2019s-challenge.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2022 Contact reporter Liz Kellar at 523-2246 or liz.kellar@juneauempire.com.<\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In video after video, young giggling teens can be seen filming themselves and each other playing the \u201cpassout\u201d or \u201cchoking\u201d game. \u201cThat is how you make \u2026 people pass out,\u201d says a teen boy in one clip after demonstrating the move on his girlfriend. \u201cIt\u2019s really funny.\u201d A quick internet search uncovers one YouTube channel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":5446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-5445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5445"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=5445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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