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United States Entertainment Games

Dance Dance Revolution Hastens Heart Attack 93

Posted by simoniker from the extreme-paranoia dept.
Thanks to TheOmahaChannel.com for its story discussing a 15-year old girl whose heart stopped while playing arcade Dance Dance Revolution. According to the piece: "[Kimber] Wilson was playing the game Dance Dance Revolution at a Bellevue arcade with a friend June 22 when she fell to the floor. The arcade owners gave her CPR, then a police officer took over. Paramedics shocked her several times with a defibrillator at the arcade to get her heart working again." The diagnosis was "hypertrophy cardiomyopathy", a genetic problem (which could have been triggered by any exercise) in which "the walls around her heart are so thick that her heart wasn't getting the signals to beat." Fortunately, Kimber was "soon... back to hanging out with her friends at the arcade", albeit with a pacemaker, commenting: "I might try Dance Dance Revolution, but I'm thinking no."
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Dance Dance Revolution Hastens Heart Attack More

Dance Dance Revolution Hastens Heart Attack

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  • Complete crap (Score:5, Informative)

    by ubrkl ( 310861 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2004 @12:08AM (#9567875)
    It was "a genetic problem" ... any excercise would have triggered this. Nothing to do with DDR.

    • Re:Complete crap (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Joe the Lesser ( 533425 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2004 @12:12AM (#9567890) Homepage Journal
      Max Unlimited on Heavy will give anyone a heart attack ;-)

      Honestly though, DDR is often my sole exercise for a week. A great way for geeks to get into shape without having to go outside. :)

      • A great way for geeks to get into shape without having to go outside. :)
        Are they going to come out with a version that uses the buttons on the game controller, rather than youre feet?
        • There's actually two PS2 games that are designed as rhythm games using the controller instead of the dance pad. 'Frequency' and it's sequel 'Amplitude' both work this way. I've played both.

          You only have three triggers instead of four. However, you have multiple 'tracks' of the songs to complete, between which you have to switch. Surprisingly addicting despite the lack of physical activity, and being less physical the more difficult levels get much more complicated than DDR.
    • Don't think DDR is so safe!

      I myself went blind and deaf just from watching people play it!

      Sha-zing!

  • How is this the game's fault? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by rice_web ( 604109 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2004 @12:11AM (#9567882)
    It's not, this could have occurred at any time.

    Why even relate this to the game?
    • Very much true. But you know, a lot of people will make the connection, however invalid, anyway. People have a tendancy not to read... or at least not to finish reading. I can almost see the local news now, with a story on "local reaction to this shocking news." A 15 year old girl will be interviewed, saying "My mom said I am not allowed to play DDR anymore." A mother will be interviewed, saying "When I saw that news I had my children tested for heart problems. I never knew DDR could be this damaging!" ...
      • Oh come on. People aren't (extreme) idiots. If you and I don't think that way, what makes you think "a lot" of people would?

        I have a saying I stick by - anything I can think of, others have thought of earlier. Anything I can do, others can do better.

        • I am just going by the fact that people don't seem to read past the headlines. I have been in several different situations, with several different groups of people, on several different topics, where a posted notice, submitted message, or news clipping was never considered past the first few words.
    • It's not, this could have occurred at any time.

      Why even relate this to the game?
      Because it didn't happen anytime. It happened when she was using DDR. I think it's reasonable to put them together in the story so long as the rest of the facts are presented.
    • Well, follow the link, and you'll see the actual title of the article is, "Heart Condition Strikes Girl Down At Arcade". If you read the article, it doesn't blame the game for anything.

      Whoever wrote the title for slashdot is the one that put the spin on it.
    • It could have happened while some poor schmuck was fucking her. Imagine the headlines then.

  • Talk about a misleading headline (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Hungus ( 585181 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2004 @12:11AM (#9567884) Journal
    Any form or exercise would have caused this issue for the person in question. They had a precursory cardiac condition. DDR had no more to do with this than walking biking, running or anything else. Could the Writers try to be a little less inflammatory in the future?

  • genetic problem (Score:2, Redundant)

    by zoloto ( 586738 )
    This was a genetic problem that could have occured due to running or swimming. DDR was involved so naturally it makes headlines on /.

    gg /. - strike 4525452 =) /for_the_humor_impaired_this_is_placed!

    • Re:genetic problem (Score:4, Insightful)

      by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2004 @01:47AM (#9568377) Homepage Journal
      "DDR was involved so naturally it makes headlines on /."

      Remember when GTA3 was 'linked' to an isolated sniper shooting? No direct connection, but it was enough to get lawsuits filed against Sony and Rockstar. That's why it made it to Slashdot. Not because of the game, but because of the inevitable fallout from it. This isn't a reflection of Slashdot, it's a reflection of the tards like Liberman trying to gain political power.
      • All they need is a disclaimer on the machine that says if you have any medical problems seek doctors advise before using this product.

        Actually a lawyer would word it with an EULA type of statement that if the individual had ever been ill then you aren't authorized to use the product. If you use the product, the company could then sue you.
        • I believe there is a warning on the front of most DDR machines already.

        • All they need is a disclaimer on the machine

          Already got those, thank you vary much. Excerpts from the Dance Dance Revolution Konamix (for PlayStation) instruction manual:

          • A very small percentage of individuals may experience epileptic seizures when exposed to certain light patterns or flashing lights.
          • Persons with heart and respiratory problems, physical impairments (suchas, but not limited to, back, joint, foot, musculature, and circulatory problems) that limit physical activity, are pregnant, or hav
    • I think it makes headlines on /. because it's (A) tech related in some way, and (B) it's out-of-the-ordinary enough to be noteworthy. I find it a little funny actually, since it's practically the complete opposite of that guy who died in Korea from DVT because he didn't move for a few days while playing MMORPG's.

      Also, if this leads to another round of parental censorship, this will give the inevitable YRO article a place to link to.

  • Good for her! (Score:1, Funny)

    by Idealius ( 688975 ) *
    I'm tired of north american girls taking such little interest in games.

    The fact that she played so much it almost KILLED her counterintuitively brings a smile to my face..

    Another win for the virtual world. At least she's not puking her guts out like so many other 15+ year old girls >_>

    The other good news from this article is that due to this accident they were able to discover her medical condition fairly early.

    We should send her a console with some good girl games to show her we care ^_^

  • Take the right perspective (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Heathkit ( 470499 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2004 @12:16AM (#9567912)
    She's 15 years old, and the first time she's been active enough to have her birth defect cause problems is while playing DDR.

    No wonder we're a nation of fatasses.

  • The jokes don't start coming for this one. Come on guys heart attacks are serious and I don't think you would want us laughing if you were having one.

  • Oh, great (Score:3, Interesting)

    by 0x0d0a ( 568518 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2004 @12:22AM (#9567956) Journal
    Another warning label in life, brought on by a broken US judicial system that awards vast amounts of punitive damages to the occasional winner of a bullshit lawsuit and ignores common sense.

  • GROSSLY misleading (Score:5, Interesting)

    by BTWR ( 540147 ) <americangibor3NO@SPAMyahoo.com> on Wednesday June 30, 2004 @12:26AM (#9567981) Homepage Journal
    Hi guys,

    I'm a 3rd year med student, by no means a doctor, but i've learned extensively about this topic. Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a horrible condition that causes the heart to be grossly enlarged in diameter but doesn't pump harder proportionally. HCM unfortunately does not have a good prognosis.
    It's a diease that is often involved when you hear about the high school quarterback or basketball center, "in perfect shape" who dies all of a sudden on the field.

    Horrible condition, and as you might ascertain from the above example, it unfortunately is NOT something that can be predicted in the general population. They can be assymptomatic until one day you die.

    Anyway, my point in titling this "GROSSLY misleading" is that this event, while tragic, did not necessarily have to do with DDR and more to do with the poor kid's cardiac deformity. I actually recently prepared a lecture for a group of surgeons in Chicago (about medicine and video games!) and one slide actually sited the Slashdot-mentioned [slashdot.org] story about the health BENEFITS of dance dance revolution. DDR has caused many people to become more active, less or even non-obese and has perhaps saved hundreds if not thousands of lives (or made them better/healthier). Just food for thought.

    • Isn't this the heart problem a Mexican Doctor become famous for by curing it through lobbing off half the heart and stiching the rest back up again? Or am I off base with this one. I just have a recollection of seeing a program about it a nubmer of years ago?

    • Cardiac Beta-myosin heavy chain mutation =My tatoo (Score:4, Funny)

      by spineboy ( 22918 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2004 @03:44AM (#9568874) Journal
      Just for thoses interested one of the causes of HCM (Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy) is from mutations in the Beta cardiac myosin heavy chain. While I was at the National Institues of Health (NIH) about 15 years ago, I helped discover several different point mutations (single substitutions) in DNA which caused this disease.

      Hypertrophic = enlarged, cardiac=heart and myopathy = muscle disease

      Anyway, I went and got a tatoo of the DNA section with the mutation in it. It was quite the interesting education gauge. I got double takes from people eduated in science, and "Hey dude! cool roller coaster thingy tatoo!" from the less educated, which then led in turn to "Hey, what's your phone number!"

    • ...I've had a full Cardiac Checkup (all my brothers did after our dad had a heart attack at age 55 - which in Belgium is far less common than in the US of A). Stress ECG, the works. Best bit? The Ultrasound they did of my heart, you can see your own heart beating on the screen. Anyway, one normal sized heart in this body :o)

    • slide actually sited the Slashdot-mentioned story
      I know I'll get modded down for being a grammar nazi, but if you're going to be publishing research, you really should know the differenve between "sited" and "cited".

  • This posting is a troll and extremely misleading. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Scott Robinson ( 108176 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2004 @12:28AM (#9567998) Homepage

    The posting leads the reader into believing that Dance Dance Revolution helped hasten the heart attack. This is completely untrue.

    However, the article notes:

    "You could be asleep, walking running, sitting down to eat. It can hit ya," said Eddie Wilson, Kimber's father.

    "She was in the right place with all the right people around her," said mother Julie Wilson.

    In fact, it's known that Dance Dance Revolution had nothing to do with the heart attack. "The heart problem is genetic and the incident prompted members of her family to get tested."

    I know it's futile to ask, but could the editors please at least read the linked articles to ensure the writeups are accurate?

    I wonder if someone could write up a provocative enough writeup and sneak a shock picture past?

  • I hate Dance Dance. (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 30, 2004 @12:41AM (#9568063)
    This is one time that I hope the Lieberman's of the world unite to ban the Dance Dance menace. I am tired of going to the arcade at the mall and beating the high score on the Galaga machine only to see all of the teenage girls are giggling over the skinny Asian kid jumping up and down to bad techno music. Yeah, I am at least 10 years older than the girls but Galaga players want some jail bait attention too.

    • only to see all of the teenage girls are giggling over the skinny Asian kid jumping up and down to bad techno music.

      Then propose to work with the arcade operator to convert the cabinet to a StepMania [stepmania.com] machine, without the "bad techno music" as you call it.

  • DDR = (Score:5, Funny)

    by k4rm4_p0l7c3 ( 583281 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2004 @12:47AM (#9568093)
    Defribrilator Defribrilator Resuscitation
  • The lead isn't misleading in the slightest, despite all your whining. It clearly states that this was a congenital deformity that many things besides DDR could have triggered. Did you guys even read the lead? Are you just getting inflamed because of the headline? Do we need to start saying RTFL, now?

    Shut up, you little whiners.

    This was a human interest story that would be accessible to all of you because it incorporated a familiar nerd topic. It helped bring your attention to this unfortunately too co
    • I disagree. Both the Slashdot article and the article it is based use an irrelevant "hook" to get people to read the article that they would otherwise not bother with. People are quite justified in being annoyed by this kind of trickery.

      Use of misleading / overblown headlines is a common tactic in the media. The only thing that makes Slashdot different is that the readership get to call out the editors for doing it.

      This was a human interest story that would be accessible to all of you because it inco

    • "This was a human interest story that would be accessible to all of you because it incorporated a familiar nerd topic. It helped bring your attention to this unfortunately too common disease, as few other articles could have."

      Calm down, man. The headline paints the wrong picture in people's minds. The info was corrected. By doing so, people demonstrated understanding of the common disease. You got what you wanted without even realizing it.

    • Re:God, I hate this place. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by CarrionBird ( 589738 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2004 @09:34AM (#9570214) Journal
      You flaming idiot. ;-P

      This isn't a national headline story without the DDR non-issue. They take a not important aspect of the story and make the headline with it in order to capture peoples attention. Then they mention in passing that it wasn't the games fault.

      It's standard reporting trickery.
  • Lieberman already dropped out of the race, he doesn't need more haphazard reasons to blame all the ills of sociey on video games.

  • complete bullshit article (Score:3, Interesting)

    by spir0 ( 319821 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2004 @01:04AM (#9568186) Homepage Journal
    A Bellevue teenager whose heart stopped while playing a video game last week is recovering, thanks to a device and some heroes who knew how to use it.

    what device? what heroes? the only device mentioned was the device which checked her and her family members for evidence of the genetic disease.

    and were the heroes the ones who called the EMTs?

    "You could be asleep, walking running, sitting down to eat. It can hit ya," said Eddie Wilson, Kimber's father.

    This wouldn't have made news if she got the attack while eating her dinner. Her circumstances had her playing a game and this has launched this heart attack into the media.

    what a complete crock of shit.

    and thank you to the /. editors who thought this was newsworthy enough to bring to the global masses. lay off the crack guys.

  • Not an excuse! (Score:1, Redundant)

    by WSSA ( 27914 )
    Don't use this tale as an excuse not to try DDR! I mean if you're susceptible to this genetic condition (and it's a faint chance that you are) you're probably going to peg it one day in any case. But the quality of life of a non-exerciser will be increased no end by doing some exercise (speaking as a convert myself).

  • When Video Games Attack! (Score:3, Funny)

    by servognome ( 738846 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2004 @03:27AM (#9568797)
    Video games should only be played by true professionals, there is just such a high level of danger involved.
    Just look at this list of injuries:
    dizziness, altered vision, muscle twitches, loss of awareness, disorientation, motion sickness, Eye Strain [nintendo.com], Back Injury, Photosensitive Seizures [freep.com], hand-arm vibration syndrome [go.com], blisters, friction burns, lacerations [eurogamer.net], carpal-tunnel, "Nintendo Thumb", bruises [bbc.co.uk], electric shock [theregister.co.uk], the many horrors of DDR [megatokyo.com], and now heart attacks.
    In the wrong hands video game consoles, and computers running video games are death machines!
    • I was playing at an arcade, and my foot went through the arrow on the pad. It got stuck, I lost my balance, and I fell backwards, nailing my back on the bar. It was very painful; I had to have a few people help me up and out of the place. But they didn't make me pay to replace the arrow, so that was okay. I wasn't able to play for a few weeks, but whatever. I'm fine now

      Any guesses as to how big the lawsuit would have been in the US against the bar for faulty equipment? And this guy was happy because he di

  • Meanwhile... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Bob Cat - NYMPHS ( 313647 ) on Wednesday June 30, 2004 @04:41AM (#9569032) Homepage
    I am in perfect health as a result of sitting on my fat ass, drinking beer, eating Cheetos, and reading Slashdot.

    No seriously, I'm doing that right +++ATH @#*&@*#$ NO HEARTBEAT

  • It's probably fortunate (Score:3, Insightful)

    by foidulus ( 743482 ) * on Wednesday June 30, 2004 @07:13AM (#9569415)
    she was playing DDR when it happened, instead of walking to school, going for a run etc. The arcade owner knew CPR and probably saved her life. If this had happened while she was alone, then who knows what could have transpired.
    So, one could argue, DDR actually SAVED a life ;)
    • Additionally the diagnosis was made at an early stage in her life; rather than later when it could have been more dangerous.
    • So I guess it's newsworthy because video games actually (A) promote exersise! (B) promote being social! (C) contributed to saving this girl's life (in a sense)! I guess it makes the front page because it goes so against the mainstream concept of anti-social violent gaming, thereby making it shocking!
  • Lets just ignore the fact that she was already sick and just focus on the evil video games. That'll make the front page!

    I don't think there is an expletive available to expess my contempt for these fact skewers.

    Journalism is a myth.
  • nuff said
  • Simply IGNORE articles like this, and PLEASE do not submit them when you see one, all you are doing is increasing hits/importance to an article that otherwise would be ignored by anyone who is not a geek (like us) Thanks .
  • As a lot of folks have mentioned above, the article has nothing to do with DDR, and the girl's being in arcade at the time when heart attack hit her in fact saved her life because there were so many people around her, although it's strange the disease hasn't been discovered earlier for the poor girl.

    I must say that DDR is actually very refreshing. I have a soft mat and a metal dancing stage (a self-made one, say 'no' to R*dOct*ne and other ripoffers!) at home and go to dance at the arcade often. All in all
    • It's hypertrophy cardiomyopathy that had made her heart stop. With hypertrophy cardiomyopathy you can be sitting, walking, sleeping, or playing a game, and your heart stop. It has noting to do with DDR. We told our story to the news to let people know that this heart condition is out there, and it's a killer. We were very lucky that Kimber was not killed, she was in the right place with all the right people around her. I didn't know I had it until my husband and I went and got tested 3 days after Kimber col
      • You are completely right, however, I'm keeping a watch on this story with Feedster. So far, it has been retold about five times, and in two of them, the actual cause of the problem was not clear. Next cycle, the cause will be totally omitted. Next cycle, all references to the original story will be lost... In a few more cycles DDR will be cited as the primary cause, mark my words.

        DDR is a good game, and not only for kids. But journalists will do anything to be seen as the saviors of society from evil.
        • It's funny how that is. I have been trying to keep up with this story also. By the way, I'm her mom, if that wasn't clear in the last post. Her father and I didn't intend to have this turn into an urban legend, but like a story in a small town it seams to be going that way. We just wanted to let people know what hypertrophy cardiomyopathy. We had no clue until June 22. Just look it up on the net... id doesn't matter what health your in, if your fat, or thin, if you work out or sit on your butt all day. That
  • ...and am going to carve a fat chick with a slash through it on the side of this machine. LOL
  • Screw DDR (although Stepmania [stepmania.com] is fun)...

    I WANT MOSH MOSH REVOLUTION!!!

    Oblig Webcomic Reference!

    MOSH [megatokyo.com]

    MOSH [megatokyo.com]

    REVOLUTION [megatokyo.com]!!!

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