CHULA VISTA (CNS) - A crisis team was expected to be at Chula Vista's Eastlake High School Thursday to help students cope with the unexpected death of a 15-year-old boy, who fell on a drinking glass and punctured his neck while playing a pass out game he had seen on YouTube.
David Nuno was bleeding profusely when officers arrived at his home on Old Janal Ranch Road shortly after 7 p.m. Tuesday, according to Chula Vista police and the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office.
Just prior to the freak accident, the teen and some friends were watching a YouTube video that demonstrated how to make yourself lose consciousness, Capt. Gary Wedge told reporters. As the teen mimicked what he saw in the video and passed out, he fell forward onto the glass, Wedge said.
"Nothing good can come out of watching videos like that," he said.
Nuno was pronounced dead at Rady Children's Hospital at 8:09 p.m. The Medical Examiner's Office listed the death as accidental and the cause as "sharp force injuries of neck."
"The glass shattered into multiple pieces, lacerating (his) neck," the Medical Examiner's Office reported.
The majority of Eastlake students are on a two-week fall recess until Oct. 9, but some students are attending inter-session courses and will be able to meet with crisis counselors Thursday. Ron Lopez, an administrator who oversees crisis management, said the Sweetwater Union High School District, which includes Eastlake, would educate the full student body about the dangers of the pass out game when school resumes next month.
"It's almost beyond comprehension that kids are doing this," Lopez told U-T San Diego. "But we can't put our heads in the sand."
Participants in a candlelight procession held Wednesday night from Eastlake High School to Nuno's home described the teen as easy-going and always happy, according to the newspaper.
The pass out game played by Nuno has been around for several years and has caused several dozen deaths over the past couple decades, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A study in the Journal of Pediatrics this year found that 6.1 percent of eighth-graders who participated in a survey reported playing the pass out game at least once. Players claim to get a euphoric, drug-free high when they use their hands to cut off the flow of oxygen to their brains.
