>From the Chicago Tribune, 27-Apr-82:
Heart blamed in death of video game patron, 18
By Steve Kerch
An 18-year-old South Holland youth died of a heart attack while playing
a video game in Calumet City, the Lake County, Ind., coroner ruled
Monday.
Deputy Lake County Coroner Mark Allen said the possibility that Peter
Bukowski died earlier this month as a direct result of stress caused by
the game was investigated, "but we don't want to say yes or no whether
the video game represents enough exertion to have brought on the attack."
Dr. Robert Eliot, of the University of Nebraska, release a study this
month saying video games can be hazardous to people who may be
susceptible to heart disease. Allen is going to forward the autopsy
results to Eliot for comparison with Eliot's test results.
The official cause of Bukowski's death is a heart attack "brought on by
a myocardial inflammation. He collapsed April 3 at the Friar Tuck game
room in River Oaks Shopping Center and was pronounced dead at St.
Margaret's Hospital, Hammond."
Allen said the inflammation, a scarring of the heart tissue, was
something Bukowski would have had prior to playing the game. Coroner's
office investigators inspected the "Berserk" game that Bukowski had
been playing, but found no electronic defects.
Bukowski had no history of heart trouble, and Allen compared the case to
others in which high school athletes had died for similar reasons.
Allen said the heart attack could have been caused by any type of
exertion, like "hiking up a flight of stairs or running from first to
second base".
