Two years ago, Hayley Cunningham lost her cousin to a deadly game she'd never heard of.
Her cousin was found dead in his bedroom after accidentally choking himself, the result of an increasingly fatal practice gaining popularity among middle-school students known as the "choking game."
It involves near-strangulation that provides a brief floaty feeling and fainting. After grieving her cousin's death, Cunningham decided she wanted to educate others and maybe save a life.
"It would just be wrong to have this kind of information that others don't know," said Cunningham, 18.
While conducting research for presentations she hoped to give at her school, Sayre, she met Dr. Hatim Omar, chief of the division of adolescent medicine at the University of Kentucky. In the last two years, three Kentucky deaths have been linked to the game, and Omar has treated eight teens for injuries connected with near-strangulation.
Read the full story at Kentucky.com
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