A British gamer who suffered a seizure was saved by his astute online teammate who called the police after realising something was wrong.
17-year-old Aidan Jackson from Widnes in the UK was talking to his online friend, 20-year-old Dia Lathora from Texas in the US, when he had a fit.
Dia acted quickly and called Cheshire Police via the emergency services, who arrived at Aidan’s house. This surprised his parents, who were unaware he was having a seizure in his bedroom upstairs. They rushed upstairs and found their son ‘extremely disorientated’.
“I had just gotten up from my computer to go and sit down and I felt a little funny,” Aidan told Sky News in the report linked below.
“I turned my mic around so [Dia] could still hear me. The next thing I knew, I was waking up with police and my parents in my room saying I had a seizure. I had no idea what was going wrong.
“When I was in hospital, I managed to get hold of an iPad so I could still talk to [Dia], I let her know I was okay and thanked her at least five to ten times for [what she did]. I thank her every time I see her.”
Aidan is having tests to see what caused the seizure.
It’s not clear which game Aidan and Dia were playing, but footage below shows Aidan playing EA’s Star Wars Battlefront.
The Sky video report above has been viewed more than 1.4m times since it was published a few days ago – and the news has been picked up by major broadcasters and publications around the world.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
