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Video
Gaming Leads to Seizure
Video gaming has been linked to some rather unsavory statistic in the
comparatively short time of its popular reign as one of Americans most favorite
pass times. But, the chance of extended video gaming causing a seizure is a risk
most Americans are likely to not be very excited to hear about. That is exactly
the realization that an Iowa family was forced to discover over this past
weekend when 14 year old Amy Kopaska suffered from a seizure after playing a
video game for five straight hours.
This occurrence is uncommon in video gaming said doctors, but is possible
with individual whose brains are more predisposed to be effected in such a way
by bright and flashing lights. Janell Hansen, Kopaska's mother, woke up early
Sunday and heard an awful noise from her daughter's room and then found her
thrashing on her bed in the fits of a seizure. "I rolled her over. Her
eyes were dilated. She was foaming at the mouth, gasping for air. Just breathing
very hard, then it was quiet. She didn't move. I thought I was watching her die.
It scared me terribly," Hansen said.
Dr. Joel Waymire, the family's pediatrician, said, "The pattern of the lights
sets up an abnormal reaction in the brain, and that causes the seizure to
happen." The video game featured a car that was driving through snow and the
bright headlights as the reflected off of the snowflakes served as a
strobe-light effect. Amy says she remembers nothing of the seizure and that it
simply felt as if her brain just went blank. The video game, "True Crime: New
York City." is still one that she wishes to play, only now in much more limited
increments.
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