A 16-Year-Old in India Died After Playing Too Much PUBG

Playing too much PUBG is probably what got a 16-year-old from Madhya Pradesh, India killed. On May 28, Furkhan Qureshi, a 12th-grader from the town of Neemuch, suffered a cardiac arrest after he spent six hours straight fighting for his chicken dinner on the popular mobile gaming app PlayerUnknown’s Battleground or PUBG.

His father, Harun Rashid Qureshi, said, “Furkhan started playing the game right after lunch and it continued for over six hours. Just before he collapsed, he became very agitated and started shouting at other players.”. His sister Fiza Qureshi, who was right next to him when this happened, said, “My brother was playing PUBG with some of his friends. Suddenly, he started shouting, ‘carry out the blast..carry out blast.' Then he threw his earphones and mobile and cried saying, ‘Ayan I will not play with you. I lost the game because of you.’”

Following this, Furkhan was hurriedly taken to a hospital, where the doctors declared him as dead. “The boy was brought to the hospital without a pulse,” says cardiologist Dr Ashok Jain, who examined Furkhan once he was brought in. “We tried to revive him with electric shock and also injected him to revive his heart, but we failed in our attempt.” Pointing out that the boy showed no previous signs of heart ailment, the doctor said, “The excitement of the game might have caused a surge in adrenaline causing cardiac arrest. I appeal to the children to stay away from such games as excitement could cause cardiac arrest.”

The WHO recently sparked debate by declaring gaming disorders on its list of diseases, with many feeling it wasn’t a fair decision. But it’s important to acknowledge that even though not all games are dangerous, some can be seriously addictive in a fatal way. And this is especially true when it comes to PUBG, a game which can even get you arrested in some states like Gujarat in India, and Nepal. That’s probably why it never got the approval in China, a decision that seems pretty short-lived ever since China got its own version of the game by PUBG mobile makers Tencent Global.

And while the police are still investigating whether it was the game that got this guy killed, this isn’t the first time a young person has died from playing too much PUBG.

From a 20-year-old in Telangana who died from playing it for 45 days to two guys who were so distracted while playing that a train ran over them, PUBG has proven to be kinda deadly. There are even cases in which kids have died by suicide or killed their families after being prevented from playing it.

Games can be a good escape. And one of the reasons PUBG is so popular is because it doesn’t need any jarring controllers or connecting wires, just a mobile connection to aid your escape route. But because it’s easy to access, it’s also easy to get carried away in the world where you parachute onto an island and scavenge for weapons, enough to lose yourself while you’re trying to find a way to survive. So while there’s already talks of blanket banning this game, one of the first areas that should be addressed is how to exercise caution and control towards the newest addiction.

Follow Shamani Joshi on Instagram.