'Choking Game' Suspected In Death Of 10-Year-Old Boy (VIDEO)

Thailan Cash's parents say they warned him about the "choking game," the dangerous activity that involves cutting off the supply of oxygen to the brain in order to induce a high.

Yet they believe the game is what killed their 10-year-old son on Saturday, not suicide as Milwaukee police believe.

"It wasn't a suicide, 'cause he was just too happy and he had no reason to commit suicide," the boy's father, Enzy Curtis, told local Milwaukee station TMJ4. "I think it was just a game he was playing and it got out of hand," Curtis said.

Cash says Thailan's older brother found him in the upstairs living room Saturday night, slumped over with a curtain around his neck.

"I tried pulling it from around his neck. But, it was just, I couldn't pull it. I just yanked the whole curtain down," Cash says.

Both parents say Thailan has played the choking game before, and they warned him. "I told him 'honey that's dangerous. You shouldn't do that," Cash says.

Similar accidents have shed light on the choking game in recent years, though it has been around for decades, Colleen Perry, a marriage and family therapist in California, told The Huffington Post last year:

This is NOT a new fad. This behavior has been around for decades, but now it has come into popularity. It gives the "good kids" a chance to get "high" without the risks of getting caught with alcohol or drugs. The average age of kids doing the choking game is 9 -16 years old, and 250- 1,000 kids die in the U.S. and Canada each year from it. It's difficult to get accurate numbers to assess its lethality since many are ruled as suicides.

Non-profit organization, G.A.S.P. (Games Adolescents Shouldn't Play) cites these warning signs that your child or teen may be playing the choking game:

• Any suspicious mark on the side of the neck, sometimes hidden by a turtleneck, scarf or permanently turned-up collar.

• Changes in personality, such as overtly aggressive or agitated.

• Any kind of strap, rope or belt lying around near the child for no clear reason—and attempts to elude questions about such objects.

• Headaches (sometimes excruciatingly bad ones), loss of concentration, flushed face.

• Bloodshot eyes or any other noticeable signs of eye stress.

• A thud in the bedroom or against a wall -- meaning a fall in cases of solitary practice.

• Any questions about the effects, sensations or dangers of strangulation.

WATCH:

Comments

[Jakethesssnake]

11:23 AM on 08/07/2012

This is absolutely terrible and must stop. I've seen my new next door neighbors who justimmigrated from Mexico playing this ridiculous game. I don't want my kids learning about this.

[whoajack]

10:55 PM on 12/17/2011

Oh, I am so very sorry for their loss! May God please comfort this family for the remainder of their days.

[Thewordsmith1]

02:05 PM on 12/07/2011

"250- 1,000 kids die in the U.S. and Canada each year"

OMG, what? I have heard of this game in reference to sex but never as a way of just getting high. I swear if I heard about another 10-year-old hanging (choking) themselves, I just might scream! Parents really have to pay closer attention to their children and their habits. If this little boy had tried this in the past perhaps they should have monitored him a little closer and tried to decern why this activity was so fascinating to him. Just sad to hear!

[curmugin]

01:21 PM on 01/28/2012

It would be helpful for parents to acknowledge that "the choking game" is a form of erotic asphixiation. Old stats show 30 to 50 percent of adolescent hanging deaths are autoerotic. It is underreported because parents often see suicide as less shameful.

[Sistagirl Young]

10:53 AM on 12/07/2011

I was gonna add my two cents but in light of some of the comments I think I'll just keep my "stupidity" to myself. But trust me. Y'all wouldna believed it anyway. Life.

[Kathryn Talbert]

05:18 PM on 12/06/2011

I remember being introduced to a form of this in the mid seventies when I was in my mid-teens. A group of older teens would hold their breath and have someone come up from behind a do a maneuver similar to a heimlich, inducing them to evacuate all the oxygen in their system and then pass out, or something like that. I thought it was stupid and a lot of trouble for little gain, but was so willing to be in with the big kids that I played along.

It was at camp and I remember a counselor coming up and catching us and getting them to stop telling them it leads to brain damage. Once I heard "brain damage" I decided to sit on the sidelines as they resumed the activity as soon as the counselor walked off.

[Gregory Schwartz]

04:17 PM on 12/06/2011

I am 61 years old and we used to do this before I was ten years old. You stoop down and take ten deep breaths, get up, stick your thumb in your mouth and blow hard while a friend squeezes your stomach from behind. You pass out instantly. You "wake up" about five seconds later, yet it feels like you've been out for an hour. We used to call it "fainting". Then when I was around 25, I had some friends that used to do this same exact thing. They called it "Rush". I had forgotten all about it. At my age I wouldn't think of trying this stupid "game" ever again. I've already had one heart attack. This self-induced fainting can't be good for a persons' heart. I would advise all kids never to do anything like this. It might be fun, but it can kill you! -gregg in Sarasota, FL

[CapsFan1988]

02:24 PM on 12/06/2011

I heard about this when I was in high school. I tried it once or twice by just putting a belt around my neck and squeezing.... and then when I got the head rush I would let go... if I had passed out I still would've lived because I never tied or fastened the belt, so the second my hands dropped the belt noose would come undone. Looking back on it, even though I had a failsafe and stopped when I was getting the head rush, I still think it was pretty dumb on my part to try that....then again I never tried drugs (I have still never tried them) for fear of my conservative Government father finding out, so I guess I wanted to experience a "high". Kids and young adults, who are thinking about doing this, please don't! It is a stupid idea, and it may get you killed! No "high" is worth that!

[HarryParatestes]

01:53 PM on 12/06/2011

shoulda just tole him, "baby.. you goen to die playin dat"

[happyjoyjoy333]

01:28 PM on 12/06/2011

*don't do it

[stacysmom1]

01:27 PM on 12/06/2011

In the 60's, my friends and I liked a game that produced the same thing, cutting our oxygen off.
Only we would get ourselves breathless, and have someone squeeze us around the middle till we passed out. I didn't know the dangers of this back then, but it has been around for decades. I'm in my 60s now and thank God I didn't die back then.

[happyjoyjoy333]

01:27 PM on 12/06/2011

I never heard of this until the mid-90s. I don't know why anyone would do this. Common sense tells you you need to breathe to live, so don't try to strangle yourself, even temporarily. I still can't figure out why kids do this. If I was a kid and someone said it would make me high, I would automatically balance that with the fact it could kill me, or worse, leave me alive but a vegetable. It would not be worth the risk. How come kids can't see that? It's not like they are babies.they are 10 years old. That is old enough to figure it out. Society is getting sicker everyday, and now our children are too. Really, really sad. I feel for the family, but if my kid tried this and I was going to "warn him" I would not say "Honey it's dangerous, do do it." I would be yelling and scaring the bejeezus out of him! I would be asking him if he wanted to die or be a vegetable for the rest of his life. I would use everything I know to scare the crap out of him to make sure he knew what was what. Oh, wait.......I just realized......that would be considered verbal child abuse these days.

[dmoongo]

01:26 PM on 12/06/2011

Kids these days don't stand a chance because their parents are so GD stupid.

[bunnymom53]

01:22 PM on 12/06/2011

I "learned" about this activity as a 6-year old little girl, but not at my own hands. My older brother used to squeeze me until I passed out and then, to the amusement of his buddies, would time the session to see how long it would take until I came to. Believe me, it wasn't a high for me, it was terrifying because I never knew if I would wake up. I couldn't tell my parents because my brother threatened it would just get worse if I did. As he was 7 years older than me, the behavior only increased over the years. I'm 58 years old now, and still cannot begin to describe the lifetime of horror and abuse I survived. The sad part is that I didn't even understand it was wrong or abusive at the time - it was just "kids play." I just thank God that I survived and lived to forgive him. Stupid brothers :)

[Kathryn Talbert]

05:23 PM on 12/06/2011

Your story reminds me of how, when I was about 5 or 6 my mother's boyfriend would grab me, pick me up, throw me onto my bed (after carrying me to my room), hold his huge hand over my mouth with the top of his palm covered my nostrils and hold it there while I struggled to breath. He'd laugh and smile as I would writhe around for my life. I can't remember if I passed out or any other details, just that he did this often it seems. Those memories never leave you, I know.

[Carla Rae H]

10:13 AM on 12/07/2011

What a horrible thing for him to do. He should have been jailed for it. So sorry you went through that. I hope he was not in your life for long.

[meezmos]

01:19 PM on 12/06/2011

Maybe a kid that plays the choking game isnt as happy as you think?

[chelledc]

10:08 AM on 12/07/2011

From what I'm reading it doesn't have much to do with no being happy just one more way for a kid to push boundaries.

[gov111w]

12:17 PM on 12/06/2011

Where do these bright parents come from..."honey that's dangerous don't do that !" Perhaps a stronger reaction to him choking himself until he passes out to get HIGH might just have saved this life. What is wrong with a culture that has 10 year olds choking themselves just to get high..?????

[happyjoyjoy333]

01:32 PM on 12/06/2011

re: " What is wrong with a culture that has 10 year olds choking themselves just to get high..????­?"

Remeber, this is the same culture that teaches kids they have to "party all the time" too.
When I was growing up, a party was for birthdays, or a celebration of graduation, or a get together at Christmas. No one went out every weekend to raves, or felt that they had to "party" all the time. Life was life, and people realized it wasn't all play and no work, and that a responsible person would learn to maintain a balance in their life. It seems no one teaches responsibility anymore and anything goes. I wouldn't want to raise a kid in todays world. No way.

[MrUnlimited]

11:21 PM on 12/06/2011

When you were growing up, people didn't have camera phones and the internet to document their stupidity for eternity. I'm betting that there's a lot of debauchery that remains hidden to this day as a result.

[chelledc]

10:10 AM on 12/07/2011

Are we talking about children or late teens and 20s? I know a few friends who led this lifestyle but the majority didn't become partiers until their 20s and even that didn't last too long.