A man became temporarily paralyzed from the waist down after gaming for more than 20 hours, with video footage emerging of him being carried away by paramedics as he continues to ask if he can return to his video game.
The incident took place in an internet cafe in Zhejiang Province, China, with Newsweek reporting (via Kotaku) that the man discovered he could not move his legs after attempting to go to the bathroom. It’s unclear which game the man was playing, though it was reported that he had entered the net cafe on Saturday evening before being taken to hospital on Sunday evening.
In a video shared on the Chinese video platform Pear, the man is lifted onto a stretcher before being wheeled into an ambulance. A friend of the man who was at the scene of the incident said: “It seems he had lost sensation completely and couldn’t move at all. We had to call for an ambulance.”
According to reports from Chinese publications including qq.com, the man can be heard begging his friends to allow him to return to the game, despite him suffering from paralysis as a result of playing for too long. Understandably, the paramedics didn’t listen to his pleas and instead took him to hospital for emergency treatment.
Excessive gaming is being treated as a serious addiction in China, with “boot camps” opening up for parents to send their children to. Though these centers have become the targets of criticism for their harsh treatment of those inducted into them, China officially declaring internet addiction as a clinical disorder has led to a much stricter approach to those who spend hours browsing the web or playing games.
Image Credit: Pear
