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Boy dies from cutting off air A 15-year-old North Medford High School student has died, less than two months after an apparent thrill asphyxiation game went too far. Jackson County death records indicate the boy died March 13. The freshman student was injured Jan. 25, when family members discovered him unconscious and not breathing in a bedroom of his rural Medford home. He had attached one end of a dog leash to the bottom rung of a bunk bed and the other end secured tightly around his neck, according to a Jackson County Sheriff's Department report. Family members told deputies they believed the incident was an accident, not a suicide attempt. After examining the boy's injuries, Rogue Valley Medical Center emergency room staff concurred. Before the accident, the boy had attempted to make himself pass out several times by clamping his hands around his neck until he nearly lost consciousness, the report said. The boy told his father and his brother that he had learned the technique at school from classmates, the report said. The day the boy died, he had used the choking technique in the car on the way home from school and later in the evening, family members told deputies. North Medford High School Principal Doug McKenzie said in January that the practice, sometimes called "choking out," has been common for years, even since he was a teenager. He said school officials had no indication that the practice was becoming more popular among local youth. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.