‘Sonic The HedgeHog’ Allegedly Causes Heart Attack [Op-Ed]

A Sonic the Hedgehog heart attack in Great Britain has allegedly created a stir.

Back in the days of the Sega Genesis, there was this little platformer game starring a blue hedgehog that was notorious for moving really fast. The name was Sonic the Hedgehog, and the game was the type that moved so fast it was difficult to play if your reflexes were lacking. It was Sega’s answer to Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros., and it spawned several successful sequels before the 3D craze took over and almost completely destroyed the franchise.

Some fans still love the character, though, as a 16 year old Jake Gallagher allegedly got overexcited and had a Sonic the Hedgehog heart attack. Little is known of why this particular video game character was responsible, or even if it was the true cause. British news reporter The Daily Mail, whose journalism has been known to be akin to a tabloid, used the circumstances of a young man’s tragedy to pin the blame on a video game.

Video games have long been a subject of scrutiny by people who apparently dislike the hobby in general and believe it to be a bad influence on today’s youth. The most popular angle has always been video game violence, even though only one instance I am aware of logically connects video games to violence at all, as previously reported by The Inquisitr.

The Daily Mail spun the story as such, “Killed by a video game. Excitement ‘triggered fatal heart attack of teenager who died while playing his Xbox’.”

The exact causes of the Sonic the Hedgehog heart attack are not known, even though the young man was reportedly suffering from Asperger’s syndrome and Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome, which by themselves mean any trigger at all could have caused it. However, to back up their diagnosis, The Daily Mail used a doctor for hire, Sanjay Sharma, to attribute the death, instead of to the young man’s heart condition, to a video game, “There is a definite risk in predisposed young people playing video games that causes surges of adrenalin in the blood.”

Well thank you, Captain Obvious. If it wasn’t for the adrenaline we get from some games, we wouldn’t have much reason to play them. Well, score another herpty derp for The Daily Mail.

What do you think was the real cause of the young man’s Sonic the Hedgehog heart attack?