A teenager in China has been unable to move his left arm and hand after binge-playing computer games for a month.
The 15-year-old, nicknamed Xiaobin, indulged in video games for about 22 hours a day while staying at home during the coronavirus lockdown, his mother said.
He was rushed to a hospital in southern Chinese city Nanning after he suddenly passed out at home.
The event was recently brought to light by Nanning Television after Xiaobin had been receiving treatment at the Jiangbin Hospital in Guangxi province since the incident.
The Year 9 student had been staying at home since February after schools across China were closed due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Xiaobin’s mother said that her son spent most of his time in his bedroom during the school closure.
When his parents asked what he was doing, Xiaobin replied that he was taking classes online.
The parent told reporters: ‘He shut the windows and locked the door. We had no idea what he was doing in there.’
The mother later discovered that Xiaobin had been playing computer games non-stop for some 22 hours a day.
She said: ‘I saw his online conversation with friends. He said he wasn't well rested and was sleeping for at most two hours a day.’
The teenager was rushed to the Nanning hospital in March after he had suddenly collapsed at home.
Xiaobin was diagnosed with a cerebral stroke after undergoing a CT scan. He also lost sensation in his left arm and hand.
Dr Li, a brain specialist at the hospital, said that the boy’s condition was caused by his unhealthy lifestyle of binge-playing computer games and staying up late.
She told the local media: ‘The main reason is that he had irregular sleeping and eating patterns because he wasn’t at school. The parents also tolerated his behaviours too much.
‘A lack of nutrition and rest had led to a reduced amount of blood and oxygen in his brain and caused a cerebral stroke,’ said Dr Li.
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.
Video game addiction has become a prominent societal issue among the young people in China, with an increasing number of young people choosing to ignore their studies, social lives and family to play online games.
Many parents use the so-called 'digital detox' rehab camps as a last resort to curbing their children's fixation on the digital world.
Internet addiction is considered a clinical disorder in the nation.
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Source: Daily Mail UK