Teenage gamer collapses after fourth day of "Modern Warfare" marathon

Tyler Rigsbycollapsed after playing shoot-em-up Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 in his bedroom for four days. 

A FOUR-DAY Xbox gaming marathon apparently was too much for one 15-year-old Ohio boy.

WBNS-TV reports that the Columbus teen Tyler Rigsby collapsed and was taken to hospital on Tuesday after becoming severely dehydrated. His mother says he emerged from his bedroom during the four days only to pick up snacks or take a quick shower.

The boy was so engrossed in playing shoot-em-up "Modern Warfare 3" on Xbox that he made himself sick.

When he finally emerged, and went to visit his aunt, he was pale and his lips had turned blue.

"It's like he was looking at me but he wasn't there. It was like he was looking through me," said Jennifer Thompson, Tyler's aunt. "We were talking and I heard a thump and I looked over and he just fell."

He collapsed three times before the horrified relatives called an ambulance.

"I was very scared. I thought he was going to die," his mother Jessie Rawlins told NBC. "He just fell over three times."

He's expected to be OK - but his mum has taken away the Xbox.

Dr Mike Patrick, an emergency physician at Nationwide Children's Hospital, recommended that gamers use some common sense: Get plenty of food and fluids, take breaks for physical activity and get some sleep.

He said dehydration can cause dizziness because there is less fluid in the blood vessels, so the brain is starved of oxygen.

-  AP