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Darwin Awards
2010 Slush Pile

This item was recently submitted by a reader.
Should I include it in the archive?
Vote to tell me what *you* think!

Two girls die from 'choking game,'

2010 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance

Fourteen-year-old Angelena Ohanessian had just returned to her Northwest Side home from a park. She was in love, or so her diary said.

But two hours later, her parents found her in her bedroom closet -- unconscious -- with the cord from a radio wrapped around her neck. » Click to enlarge image 14-year-old Angelena Ohanessian (left) and 15-year-old Rebekah Toria (right) both died after playing the "choking game," prompting police to issue a warning to parents about the dangers involved with the activity.

SYMPTOMS AND WARNING SIGNS — Strange bruising or red marks around the neck

— Bloodshot eyes

— Bed sheets, belts, T-shirts, ties or ropes tied in strange knots and/or found in unusual places

— Visiting websites or chat rooms mentioning asphyxiation or the choking game

— Curiosity about asphyxiation (asking questions like “How does it feel?” or “What happens if ... ?”)

— Disorientation and/or grogginess after being alone

— Locked or blocked bedroom or bathroom doors

— Frequent, often severe headaches

— Changes in attitude; becoming more aggressive

— Wear marks on furniture (bunk beds or closet rods)

She was rushed to the hospital, but the girl her parents described as "happy, happy" and "goofy" died two days later.

Angelena had been playing the "choking game," in which participants receive a feeling of euphoria by depriving the brain of oxygen by wrapping something around their necks. But she went too far, leading to her death late last month.

In the last week, the game also claimed the life of another girl from the Northwest Side, Rebekah Toia, 15, prompting a warning from police about the potentially lethal activity.

Angelena's parents found their unresponsive daughter July 28. She was sitting on the floor in a makeshift cubby hole in her closet, her back against the wall, her legs crossed.

"I said to her, 'Angelena, come on. It's time to get up,' " her mother, Violette Ohanessian, recalled Thursday. But her daughter didn't respond.

"I got down on the floor and got in her face and said, 'It's time to get up,' again, and noticed that her eyes were rolling back," she said.

Her father then lifted Angelena and moved her forward, only to find something around her neck. Through the clothes in the closet, her mother and father saw the cord slip off her neck. She was still warm but unconscious.

Her mother, a registered nurse, started CPR immediately. Their other teen daughter called for help.

Angelena was taken to Resurrection Medical Center, then transferred to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, where she would spend two days on life support, brain dead, her family said.

It wasn't until Angelena's father turned to his daughter's phone the next day for something to remind him of the happy teen he raised that he found an unexpected video.

Angelena had filmed two of her friends playing the pass-out game. It was another version of the game that killed his daughter. In the video, one girl was told to hold her breath twice, then exhale twice. She then passed out, and another girl caught her and laid her down, Victor Ohanessian said.

He returned to the hospital with the discovery -- and what had happened to Angelena all made sense.

"We were confused until we saw that video and found out that this is what she had done," he said.

"What these kids do is wrap the cord around their neck, put their hands and fingers in there, they go forward, and then when they start to black out, they pull back," Victor Ohanessian said. "I think what happened is she blacked out and it was too late."

But instead of hiding what happened to their daughter, the Ohanessians paraded more than 200 teens into Angelena's hospital room so they could see firsthand the dangers of playing the game.

"I left it up to the parents to decide'' whether to let their children see Angelena, Victor Ohanessian said. " 'I told them, 'This is what she did. I'm finding out from other kids that this has been going on. She is on a ventilator.' And I came right out and told them she is probably not going to leave here."

The visitors included most of the 49 teens who, like Angelena, had just graduated from St. Tarcissus Catholic School. Many didn't realize how severely injured she was until they walked into the hospital room; many then became hysterical.

"Marching the kids in I thought would do some good," said Violette Ohanessian. "You want to play this game. This is what happens."

At Angelena's wake, her father received more than 2,000 people and told nearly every visiting teen of the dangers of the game.

Rebekah Toia, who lived less than a mile from the Ohanessians, died from hanging after playing the choking game, authorities said. She knew friends of Angelena's sister.

Rebekah's mother came home from work Tuesday and found her hanging by her neck from a cloth belt tied to the top of her bedroom door.

As Chicago Police warned of the dangers of the game at a news conference Friday, Rebekah's family gathered at her wake at a Norridge funeral home. Her aunt Joann Demoss remembered the teen as "a gifted writer, a star athlete, a fun kid to be around, always happy, always smiling."

Rebekah had made the varsity softball team as a freshman at Whitney Young High school. She was also a gymnast and played other sports.

She was about to start her sophomore year with a straight-A record.

"She was the only child of my sister and brother-in-law and was the light of their life," Demoss said. "This is very senseless and sad; we're still all in shock, and it's hard to believe she is gone."

Demoss said her family wants to join with police to get the word out to parents to look for warning signs.

One possible sign was found after Rebekah's death: A jump rope the teen had used for training had a handle removed, and the end of the rope was tied like a noose.

"We don't think this was the first time she did this," Demoss said.

By Friday night, a Facebook page dedicated to Rebekah was inundated by messages from friends and family, as well as people who didn't know the teen but wanted to see an end to the dangerous game.

The "choking game" behavior has actually been around since at least the 18th century, said Grand Central Area Detective Valerie Lymperis. But it seems to rise and fall in popularity. Both boys and girls, typically between 9 and 16, have been known to take part, using anything from ropes and bed sheets to hands and other objects to constrict blood flow, then release it, causing a high.

"Kids might think this is an alternative" to getting high on drugs, which might be responsible for an apparent resurgence in its popularity, Lymperis said.

A federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report identified 82 probable choking-game deaths among people between the ages of 6 and 19 between 1995 and 2007. More than 70 percent of the deaths involved boys; the average age at death was 13.

Besides death, participants can suffer eye hemorrhages, concussions or broken bones from falls associated with the game, or even comas and seizures in severe cases, according to the CDC website.

Anyone with questions about the game can call detectives at (312) 746-8282.

Submitted on 08/16/2010

Submitted by: Kathy Keys
Reference: Chicago Sun-Times August 14, 2010

Copyright © 2010 DarwinAwards.com

>> Moderator Scores <<

Bruce said:
Definitely Toss: Other
Thanks, Kathy, but our maturity cutoff is 16 so we can't accept this story.


Candi said:
Definitely Toss: Other
What Bruce said.


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