Teenager paralysed in arm, hand after binge-playing computer games

A 15-year-old boy in China was paralysed in the left arm and hand after losing sensation for playing video games of the computer for about 22 hours a day for a month.

The incident took place in Nanning city of China where the teenage boy, a Year 9 student nicknamed Xiaobin, was shifted to the Jiangbin Hospital in Guangxi province after losing consciousness at home.

It emerged that Xiaobin faced the terrible situation for being indulged in video games continuously for 22 hours a day at his home during the coronavirus lockdown, a Chinese channel, Nanning Television, reported.

His mother told the channel that Xiaobin spent most of his time in his bedroom during the school closure and always told his parents for taking online classes. The boy shut the windows and locked the doors and the parents have no idea what he was doing in there.

During the period, the boy reportedly slept only for two hours a day for the whole month which was discovered by his mother after searching his online conversation with friends.

The medics have diagnosed after a CT scan that the teenager suffered cerebral stroke and lost sensation in his left arm and hand.

The brain specialist at the hospital blamed the irregular sleeping and eating patterns, as well as his parents for tolerating too much for Xiaobin’s behaviours. Dr Li said that the cerebral stroke was caused due to the lack of nutrition and reset which led to a reduced amount of blood and oxygen.

The young gamer has since been receiving rehabilitation treatment at the Nanning hospital. Dr Jin, a chief therapist at the facility, said that it was difficult to determine whether Xiaobin could ever fully recover.