Class 5 student dies of cardiac arrest after losing online game

LAHORE: The cardiac arrest of an 11-year old class five student owing to stress caused while playing an online game he was hooked on has created concern among parents of his schoolmates and many of them have started uninstalling video games from mobiles, computers, tablets and i-pads of their children.

The parents got panicked after learning that game stress led to the death of the student.On Feb 5, boy Fahad Fayyaz, son of Fayyaz Khalid, a resident of Model Town, returned from school in a happy mood. He learned the Holy Quran from a Qari Sahib and then went upstairs at around 5pm. He started playing online game Fortnite with his friends. It is learnt that one of his friends had not joined him in the game due to which he was in stress. However, he kept on playing the game and talked to his co-players, saying if he lost the game, he would suffer a heart attack. He was so addicted to the game that, if not stopped, he would play it for hours daily.

At around 5:40 pm, some children went upstairs to play with him but found him unconscious. The remote of the game was in his hands. He was rushed to hospital where doctors pronounced him dead.

His uncle Riaz Khalid said that they had never thought that the online game could be fatal for their child. To a question, he said, “Fahad’s parents knew about his addiction to the game and they used to stop him from getting so much involved in it. However, the children with such an addiction never listen to their parents.”

He suggested parents should keep an eye on their children and fix time for them to use tech-based gadgets. He said that their loss was irreparable and it was an eye-opener for the parents of every child that they did not leave their children with cell phones, tablets, computers and ipads, etc.

Former Punjab Special Education minister Qudsia Asad Qazi, the mother of a child, Sikandar, a schoolmate of Fahad Fayyaz till 2016, said Fahad was an active child and he was also a very good cricketer. He died of a heart attack after losing the online game.

She said that she had uninstalled the game from the computer of her child. She said parents should keep their children away from online games.

Asad, father of another friend of the victim, said the government should ban video games and their easy access to kids and teens. He said if these games that had unending lethal impact on innocent lives were strictly regulated under a global initiative, this menace could be addressed effectively, saving precious lives. Former Inspector Abid Boxer’s son Musa was also Fahad’s classmate. Musa also used to play the game with Fahad.

Abid Boxer said parents should take care of their children and save them getting addicted to the online games. He said he had uninstalled the game from the computer and had stopped his son from playing any such game. He urged the parents not to let their children get involved in any activity excessively. It is worth mentioning that the online game Blue-whale had also claimed lives of many children worldwide.