Caffeine-Fueled Game Night Puts Boy In Coma

Video games seem like relatively safe way for a teenager to kill an evening, but one Norwegian teen playing video games at an all-night party was hospitalized with kidney failure recently, and doctors think it's linked to the energy drinks he was chugging to stay awake.

According to The Local, 14-year-old Henrik Eide Dahl was playing video games at his school in Norway when he collapsed in the cafeteria. The gaming session had been going on for 16 hours, with Dahl reportedly consuming eight liters of a caffeine-enhanced energy drink to stay awake through the event.

"I was playing "Call of Duty," Dahl explained. "Then everything went dark and I passed out." 

The teenager was rushed to the hospital with kidney failure, and he was kept alive with a respirator after falling into a coma.

"It was severely life-threatening," said Dr. Anne Kathrine Duns, who treated him. "The central nervous system, cardiovascular system, lungs, and kidneys were affected."

The doctors say they suspect Dahl's collapse and kidney failure was related to the massive quantities of energy drink he consumed that night, but it might not specifically be the caffeine that caused the reaction.

"I've never heard of such a powerful reaction to caffeine here in Norway," Duns said. "But there are more substances in energy drinks than caffeine, including some amino acids and artificial sweeteners, so it may be a combination of several things in the drink that has triggered the reaction."

Dahl is still being treated by doctors, but he's expected to make a full recovery.