As the segment “Choking game is deadly child’s play” was introduced by “20/20’s” Deborah Roberts, I felt too numb to flip away and thus ended up watching the segment.

Life is filled with “would haves” “could haves” and “should haves.” Tammy Dunn wishes she had spotted some warning signs that her daughter Chelsea was risking her life for a senseless game. Now it’s too late. Chelsea Dunn was buried a day before her 14th birthday.

All-American, athletic, opinionated and talented, 13, growing up just outside Boise, Idaho, with her twin brother Hunter and her 5 year-old sister Balee, she Chelsea was mapping out her future and dreaming of becoming an artist.

On the night of April 14, Chelsea headed off to bed as her family was watching television and her mom gave her a goodnight kiss. Next morning, when Chelsea didn’t come out of her room for breakfast, her brother walked into her room to wake her up, only to notice her hanging from her closet door with a belt around her neck.

Devastated and haunted by the question of why a lively girl with bright future could take her own life, the family searched Chelsea’s room for answers.

They found a note Chelsea had written to a friend, “I love doing that pass out thing. You wake up and you forget what happened. It comes back though you’re all tingly.”

Parents, Joe and Tammy, were shocked. After talking to his son, Mr. Hunter was assured that Chelsea had confided in her brother that she was playing this game with friends in the PE locker room and had asked him to join. He had brushed the idea off by calling it a “stupid game.” Though Chelsea’s mother had never heard about the game, her father, when he was in sixth grade, had seen kids doing it, but had no idea it was still going on today.

Apparently it’s a popular game with kids around the world, though known by different names: space monkey, space cowboy, knockout, gasps, rising sun.

Dr. Thomas Andrew, an expert on the dangers of this high-risk game, says children play it by squeezing a friend’s chest or neck to cut off the flow of oxygen. “While the brain is deprived of oxygen, you’ll get this sensation of light-headedness, perhaps numbness and the tingling. And if all goes as planned, the pressure’s then released. Blood goes torrenting up those carotid arteries and it goes into the brain, and you have this big rush.”

The rush is what children seem to crave. Some want it so much that they are now often playing the game alone, using shoelaces, ropes, dog leashes, bed sheets and belts. The results can be fatal and can be easily confused with suicide.

Dr. Andrew demonstrated how children playing the game alone have only moments to undo the choke-hold around their neck before passing out and explained gravely, if the child fails to loosen the noose himself, “should he not be able to reach it, and lose consciousness and fall forward, that pressure on his neck is now even tighter. It will deprive the blood flow — leading to a fatal result.”

Four years ago, an 11-year-old from New Hampshire and 14-year-old from Wisconsin died under similar circumstances. More recently, a 13-year-old California boy and a 10-year-old Eastern Idaho boy were likely victims of the game. Experts say signs parents and friends should look for are commonly severe headaches, marks on the neck, bloodshot eyes and closed doors.

The “would haves” “could haves” and “should haves” are not going to help bring these dead children back to life. It’s too late for that. But let’s hope this story educates parents to look for the warning signs to keep children from playing this game. These sad examples should teach children not to experiment with stupid tricks, which waste their most valuable gift — life.

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