British Xbox gamer dies from blood clot

A British man whose son died from deep vein thrombosis which he attributes to playing games on his Xbox for up to 12 hours at a time is campaigning for better awareness of the issue.

Chris Staniforth, of Sheffield, died of a pulmonary embolism, after a blood cot formed in his calf before moving to his lungs, a post-mortem confirmed on Monday.

His father, David Staniforth, is convinced that his 20-year-old son's long periods playing computer games had put him at risk and had begun a worldwide campaign to alert gamers to the potentially fatal effect of staying immobile for very long periods, BBC reports.

"After my research I saw there was no difference to Chris sitting at a desk on his Xbox and someone on a long-haul flight," he said, BBC reports.

"Sitting still is literally the danger zone. Chris loved to play and would stay up all night.

"Millions of people worldwide are playing these games for hours, and there is a risk."

He said his son had become addicted to the Halo game, the U.K.'s Sun newspaper reports.

"Chris lived for his Xbox. When he got into a game he could play it for hours and hours on end, sometimes 12 hours in a stretch.

"He got sucked in playing Halo online against people from all over the world."

In a statement, Microsoft, who manufacture the Xbox console, said: 'We have always encouraged responsible game play through our education campaigns such as Play Smart, Play Safe.

"We recommend that gamers take periodic breaks to exercise as well as make time for other pursuits."

A post-mortem examination revealed that Chris Staniforth – who was offered a place to study game design at Leicester University – was killed by a pulmonary embolism, which can occur if someone sits in the same position for several hours.

A coroner's court in Sheffield was told how Staniforth – who had no underlying medical conditions – was complaining of a low heart rate before collapsing outside a Jobcentre, AFP reports.

He had no underlying medical conditions.

Reports of gamers collapsing after spending 15 hours in front of video games are fairly common throughout Asia.

In 2005, a South Korean gamer died after playing online games for three days without taking a break, AFP reports.