PC Game Addict Drops Dead After Marathon Play
Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2005 8:50 pm
I found this article posted on one of the websites that I frequently check.
Original article source: chosunA man in his 20s who had been playing computer games continuously for over 50 hours died of exhaustion on Friday.
Daegu police said Monday a 28-year-old man identified by his family name of Lee collapsed as he was playing computer games at an Internet café in Bokhyeon-dong, Buk-gu. A former colleague who was next to him at the time took him to hospital, but he was dead within three hours.
Lee had been playing games like Starcraft for some 50 hours without sleep from about 9:00 p.m. Wednesday until the moment he died on Friday. "I tried to persuade him to go home, but he kept saying, 'Just one more game' and wouldn't budge from his seat,'" the former colleague said. The Internet café’s proprietor said Lee hardly ate. “I asked him to at least take a nap in my room, but it was no use."
Since being fired early last month over his frequent absences due to his game addiction, Lee had been coming to the PC café every day to play, police said. They believe Lee died of an exhaustion-induced heart attack.
The head of the mental health department at Daegu Fatima Hospital, Park Yeong-woo, said, "Computer game addiction, just like alcohol and drug addiction, is a disease accompanied by withdrawal symptoms like anxiety, irritability and depression... It can easily affect people who are compulsive or introverted, and they need constant help from those around them so they can be treated."