PUBG fever: Man drinks acid while playing game, survives near-death experience

One might be living under the rock if they are not aware of PlayerUnknown’s BattleGrounds (PUBG) and the controversies around it. The eSport has been in the news for more wrong reasons than right. In the latest event of the ill-effects of the game’s growing addiction, it is reported that a man drank acid while playing the game.

According to a report by Times of India, a man from Madhya Pradesh was so engrossed in playing the game that drank acid kept near him mistaking it for a bottle of water. The 25-year-old man, who is married and has a daughter, had to undergo a surgery in a hospital in Chhindwara, Bhopal after having a near-death experience. Lucky for him, he made it through the surgery and survived after the incident. Ironically, the man continued playing PUBG even in his hospital bed.

Manan Gogiya, the doctor who performed the surgery said the patient was playing PUBG even when he was admitted for recovery. His condition deteriorated, and the doctor advised his family to shift him to a hospital in Nagpur. Gogiya further said that there were ulcers in the patient’s stomach that had created an obstruction. When his condition did not improve in Nagpur, his family brought him back here. He was not able to eat anything and lost 5-6 kilograms in just a few days.

There have been an increasing number of cases wherein people have harmed themselves for not being able to play the battle royale. An 18-year-old boy in Mumbai committed suicide after his family refused to buy him an expensive phone for playing PUBG. There have been many other cases after which the game was banned in some schools after government organisations declared the game ‘harmful’ in their notice.

After many such complaints, PUBG developers issued a statement wherein they assured that the company would take feedback from parents and experts to create a healthy gaming experience. The developers recently launched a digital lock feature to curb down addiction amongst teenagers. Under the new parental control feature, parents would need to unlock the game for their children under 13 years old.