Asphyxiation is no way to get a thrill, teens are told

A Medford 15-year-old, evidently trying to get high by blacking out, winds up at the hospital

By JONEL ALECCIA
Mail Tribune

Law enforcement and medical officials are warning teenagers about the dangers of thrill asphyxiation after an apparent accident that left a 15-year-old Medford boy unconscious and not breathing.

The boy was discovered about 9 p.m. Jan. 25 at his rural home, Jackson County Sheriff Bob Kennedy said Thursday.

"The boy's father found him. He had attached one end of a (dog) leash around his neck and one around a bed," Kennedy said.

Family members commenced rescue techniques. Mercy Flights personnel transported the boy to Rogue Valley Medical Center. His condition was unclear Thursday; local hospital officials listed no patient record for him. Kennedy said he may have been moved to an out-of-area hospital.

The boy's injuries appeared to be consistent with a sometime teenage fad of using self-asphyxiation for thrills, Kennedy said. The incident did not appear to be a suicide attempt, and there was no evidence that sex or drugs was involved, he said.

"This is an adrenaline rush," Kennedy said. "In the last few years, we've heard of kids who try to cut off the blood rush to their head. They pass out and as soon as the pressure is off, they come back."

Potentially deadly problems occur when young people collapse on restraint devices that cut off their blood or air supplies.

Kennedy emphasized that the local incident was not a case of autoerotic asphyxia, in which participants, usually young men, use choking techniques to enhance sexual gratification.

"It used to be a sexual thing. We would have one or two deaths per year and still do, but there's nothing to suggest this was sexual," he said.

James Olson, state deputy medical examiner for southwestern Oregon, said Thursday he had investigated four or five autoerotic asphyxiation deaths in the past 15 years.

Ruth Rabinovitch, a Medford doctor who has researched asphyxiation, including autoerotic asphyxiation, said Thursday that hyperventilating or cutting off blood or air supplies are techniques often adopted by thrill-seeking teens.

"With the pressure on the neck, you get a kind of euphoria," she said. "I think they don't realize the dangers of these apparently fun and silly things."

Rabinovitch believes young people should be warned of the risks of inducing a loss of consciousness, by parents or perhaps in school health classes.

"It seems that it's something they should learn about, like wearing helmets," she said.

If even a few young people engage in the practice, it's too many, Kennedy said.

"We've heard in the past about kids and young adults using this as a way to get high," he said. "But we don't hear a lot about it, so I would guess it's not rampant or widespread. But apparently it is out there and it is a dangerous technique."

Reach reporter JoNel Aleccia at 776-4465, or e-mail jaleccia@mailtribune.com 

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