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Computer Game Player Gets Blood Clot In Leg
Thanks to BBC News for its article discussing a UK teenager who developed a blood clot in his leg after playing videogames in one position for too long. The piece explains: "Dominic Patrick, 14, from Merseyside, developed deep vein thrombosis after a rainy day inside with a games console... The potentially dangerous condition was caused because Dominic had his legs tucked under his body." A doctor interviewed suggested this was a relatively rare case, however: "The only risk factor we could find in this case was the fact that Dominic had sat on his legs for 10 hours playing computer games without moving... [however, it] doesn't mean that the government should be putting health warnings on PlayStations."
How can you sit in one place for 10 hours?
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
I mean, what kind of skinny-ass nerd wouldn't get up for food/soda at least once every 3 hours?
Repeal the DMCA!
What I want to know is what game was it that kept him so hooked, and where can I get a copy?
redune.com: The World 3.2 Megapixels at a time
Which game?
This is just biased reporting. You never read anything about the kid that missed the bus because he was playing video games before school, only to find out later the bus exploded when it crashed into a truckload of dynamite, or something.
Or that kid that is saved the humiliation of asking that one cheerleader out to prom because him and his buddies are planning a Halo Party that saturday.
Leave it to the media to only report on the bad things.
His father told a newspaper: "This just proves that DVT can affect even the fittest and healthiest of children."
Somehow I doubt that a kid who can, and does, put in 10 hours straight playing videogames is the "fittest and healthiest of children." My guess is that the 10-hours type of kid is something less than fit and healthy.
I wish I had his attention span... but unfortunately I can't even finish a
It must be Thursday... I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
"The only risk factor we could find in this case was the fact that Dominic had sat on his legs for 10 hours playing computer games without moving... [however, it] doesn't mean that the government should be putting health warnings on PlayStations."
No, we should be putting them on XBoxes, which is what he was playing at the time (as suggested by the XBox photo attached to the article.) So now we know the truth: Microsoft products are a health problem.
I think this boy should attend a sitting competition. The world record is 167 days of sitting - on a small platform without a Playstation or similar entertainment devices.
"Until you do what you believe in, how do you know whether you believe in it or not?" -- Leo Tolstoy
Whenever your character jumps, you should also jump. And here's a tip: if you want to make a really sharp left turn, jerk the controller to the left. It helps.
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
Should I see a doctor?
Blood clot!? Pshaw! Walk it off soldier.
You shoulda seen our palms after trying to complete the Activision Decathalon on the Atari 2600. Bloddy mess! Or the sore thumbs from combo-attacks in the early fight games. Like two yams, I tell you!
I got over my ADD by having to wait for the tape to play the game into the C64. DungeonSomething took like 30 minutes. I treated that tape like the chalice in the Vatican. It slowly cranked while I shook like a drugged monkey watching it, screaming.
I learned the subtle differences in repetative images by playing Pitfall! I could time scorpion steps in my sleep.
When feeling lethargic, I put in Activision's Warlord. More epileptic-seizure-inducing flashes that a night at the Oscars. I think I'm still twitching.
And we had NO pause buttons, wimps!
Sheesh, kids got it so easy these days.
In other news, runner dies of heart attack during morning jog.
2 points.
1. You can get hurt or die regardless of who you are and what you're doing.
2. This is only a story becuase of 2 other reasons.
2.a. Video-gamers are seen by the rest of society as lazy and dumb... so are naturally good targets.
2.b. This doesn't happen often so it's news.
Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor
I was working in a NOCC about two years back when I got a blood clot too. It was pretty !@#$ing painful, I thought I'd gotten a hairline fracture in my pelvis -- I was just walking down the street when bam!
This resulted in a few days in the hospital (IIRC, the bill came out to something like $5k just for 2-3 days). After that, I was on fragmin which is injectable, and you do that yourself. In my case I found a spot around my bellbutton, pinch that area, then throw the needle in. Sounds terrible, wasn't that bad once you got the hang of stabbing yourself with a needle. Then six months of warfarin, a blood thinner. This is the prime ingredient in rat poison, I should mention, because it causes rats to just start bleeding to death.
All in all it was an entirely unpleasant experience. You also have to return to some location every two weeks for them to take blood to make sure your warfarin dose does not need tweaking.
I'm convinced that it was linked to my job at the NOCC but it wasn't until about a year later that I actually saw links coming out in the medical journals between sitting for long periods and DVT. Previously it was thought to occur mainly in long-distance flights. Also known as Second Class Syndrome (or something. =)
It seems to me that if DVT is caused by sitting, cramped, for long durations, where you're sitting and where you're going really don't factor in. The connection between sitting for long periods and getting DVT seems to be pretty clear.
Besides, it wouldn't suck to have OSHA mandate really awesome chairs for all of us, right? =D
My
Limekiller
Every current console game has warnings in the manual for seizures and most have warnings for repetitve stress injuries. I can see blood clots being added to the list.
Microsoft also recommends some healthy gaming methods that should be followed.
I don't expect to see a surgeon general's warning on game boxes anytime soon.
It's a shame that parents aren't teaching their kids proper gaming techniques.
Trust Your Technolust
I think this guy's pretty effectively removed himself from the gene pool already.
Rob
Seriously. This is a case of video games being guilty by association. The kid's DVT was caused by sitting, not by video games. People get this on long airplane flights on a regular basis. Reason? Not the flying-- it's the *sitting*.
Oh well. Blaming it on the playstation makes a catchier headline.
Who knows? Maybe games like The Sims 2 will feature a similar messages or MMORPGs for players who remain active for long periods of time without being passive for X amount of time, presumably to eat and use the bathroom. (Loading times don't count)
Once, after playing Black & White for 6 hours straight, the lil' demon helper came out of nowhere and said "Its gettin' kinda late boss, maybe you should take a rest". I hadn't noticed the time, realised it was late indeed and I had work the next day, saved and quit.
That was cool, and apparently it was a life-saver!
You can't take the sky from me...
A) Wanna go ride bikes?
I say we just cut to the chase and start labeling absolutely everything with sweeping generalizations, like:
"You could die."
Banana: "You could die."
Bicycle: "You could die."
Bible: "You could die."
Possible variations might include:
Botox: "You should die."
Bawls: "You will die, much sooner."
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