A 12-year-old student in Yonkers, New York, died after choking at Justice Sonia Sotomayor Community School, and police are checking whether the death was tied to the “One Bite Challenge,” a social media dare involving stuffing a large amount of food into the mouth at once. The boy, whose name was not released, began choking during the school day, lost consciousness, and was given CPR by emergency responders before being taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. School officials said the exact circumstances are still under investigation and no final conclusion has been reached.
In a separate case in Oklahoma, 15-year-old Lea Person is hospitalized in critical condition after, according to her family, taking part in the “Benadryl challenge,” which encourages teens to take dangerous amounts of the allergy medicine diphenhydramine to experience psychoactive effects. People reported that she suffered seizures and cardiac arrest after taking the drug. Her father said the family initially thought the seizures were related to her history of asthma, but the hospital later showed the situation was far worse, and tests indicated no brain activity. The family hopes her case will warn parents and teenagers about misuse of common household medicines.
The risks are not new. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned in 2020 that high doses of diphenhydramine can cause dangerous heart rhythm problems, seizures, coma, and death, after reports of teens ending up in emergency rooms or dying after the challenge spread on social media. The FDA urged parents to keep prescription and over-the-counter drugs out of children’s reach.
The article says social media platforms, including TikTok and YouTube, ban content that promotes dangerous challenges or self-harm, and TikTok said such material is removed and searches related to the Benadryl challenge are redirected to safety resources. But experts say these trends can also spread through private groups and peer pressure, making direct conversations with children essential. The piece cites other fatal or severe challenge cases, including 9-year-old Jacqueline Blackwell of Texas, Russian fitness coach Dmitry Noyanzin, and an Israeli influencer known as “Pit Cream,” who was hospitalized after a food challenge.
