Q & A: Hyperventilation

Q: I am a school nurse and mother of three. My question has to do with “California High” a hyperventilation game played by young teens. As a nurse I know the dangers, but I am having trouble finding media on the subject. Teens think this is safer than using drugs, but if fact can be just as deadly or even more deadly at times. Please send me information on where I can find facts to give to my children and students. A: We also had difficulty finding information about the California High, so we contacted our colleagues and distilled their remarks. Here's what we learned. Also known as “California Knockout” or “Deep Ten,” “California High” is a hyperventilation game played by youth of all ages. Children as young as three years old are known to play a version of the game where they whirl themselves around until they’re so dizzy they fall down. Older children play another version where they hyperventilate and then have other children either squeeze them around the chest or choke them until they faint. The goal is to feel “high” (symptoms include dizziness and tingling felt in fingertips and around the mouth) or pass out. For the most part, hyperventilating is not dangerous, except possibly for those who have cardiac arrhythmias. Where danger does exist is if the person playing the game falls and knocks his or her head. In one incident, a teenage boy did fall and hit his head on the pavement while playing the hyperventilation game. His friends were able to revive him, but were concerned enough to take him to the hospital, where he died three days later from blood clots on the brain. Unfortunately, there does not exist widely available materials on the subject, either educational or preventative.