Diablo 2 Kills 17 Year Old *Article*
Killer game?
May 30, 2002
HE often stayed back after work to play computer games.
So when colleagues found Lai Pui-sun bent over the table at 8am after his work shift at a cyber cafe in Hongkong yesterday, they thought he had fallen asleep and did not disturb him.
But it was a slumber that the 17-year-old computer game enthusiast was never going to wake up from again.
The teen died after apparently playing an online game for hours in the cyber cafe where he had worked for about two months, reported South China Morning Post.
Lai started the role-playing game Diablo II between 3 and 4am, said a staff member.
Another colleague said they often played games or slept during overnight shifts when there were no customers.
Lai, who reportedly was in good health and did not have a drug habit, fell to the ground when a colleague tried to wake him at about 9.30am.
He had already lost consciousness when the ambulance arrived and was declared dead at the hospital.
Lai, who left school after completing Sec 4, lived with his parents and two triplet brothers.
Dr Choi Kin, president of the Practising Estate Doctors Association, said the flashing light from the computer screen might have caused Lai's sudden death.
He said a long-term concentration of flashing light was dangerous, adding that computer game enthusiasts should let their eyes rest for a few minutes every hour.
In a similar case in Thailand last August, factory worker Thanet Sommoi, 22, died of a stroke after a marathon all-night session of online games at a cyber cafe in Chiangmai.
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