TikTok challenge leaves 12-year-old Colorado boy ‘fighting’ for his life, family says
A 12-year-old Colorado boy is in critical condition after trying a challenge he found on TikTok in which participants choke themselves to see how long they can hold their breath.
Community members gathered on Monday to pray for Joshua Haileyesus of Aurora, who is hospitalized at Children’s Hospital Colorado, CBS Denver reported.
Joshua’s twin brother found him on Mar. 22 not breathing and unconscious, according to the TV station.
The “Blackout Challenge” is a social media trend that encourages participants to choke themselves until they pass out, according to The Denver Channel. Joshua saw the trend on TikTok and tried it himself before his brother found him, the TV station reported.
Doctors said Joshua is brain dead and that his remaining time may be short, CNN reported.
“He’s a fighter, I can see him fighting, I am praying for him every day,” said Joshua’s father Haileyesus Zeryihun, according to the publication.
The social media trend has been around for years — predating TikTok — and led to the deaths of dozens of children, including at least 82 from the years 1995 to 2007, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A 14-year-old South Carolina teen died in 2016 after participating in the “choking” game— another name for the dangerous challenge, the Rock Hill Herald reported at the time.
Erik Robinson, a 12-year-old boy from Santa Monica, California, died in 2010 after his mother found him “slumped over in the doorway with his Boy Scouts rope, which he had used to practice knots, tied around his neck,” according to Time. Police reportedly listed his cause of death as “choking game.”
CDC officials say the trend is done with “ropes, scarves and belts” or other items tied to doorknobs or bedroom furniture.
The agency encourages health care providers, parents and educators to recognize the signs of the “choking game,” which involve discussing the activity, marks on the neck or bloodshot eyes.
