Evansville teen critically injured after playing 'choking game,' organs to be donated, parents say

UPDATE: Family of the Evansville teen who was gravely injured participating in a viral social media challenge will be donating his organs Monday at 4:30 p.m., his family said via a Facebook post. 

Joann Bogard said her son Mason "will be giving life" to six people. He'll be escorted to surgery with an "Honor Walk" at 4 p.m. at Deaconess Midtown. 

"This young man continues to make us proud," Bogard wrote in the post.

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Parents of a local teen are warning families of a dangerous social media challenge after their teen was gravely injured, according to a Sunday Facebook post.

Joann Jackson Bogard said her son, Mason Bogard, participated in a "choking challenge" incident Wednesday evening. They are now preparing for his organs to be donated in the coming days.

More:Evansville teen critically injured after playing 'choking game,' organs to be donated, parents say

"We've learned that Mason attempted a challenge that he saw on social media and it went horribly wrong," Bogard said.

The challenge is also widely known as the choking game, an activity that has been defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as self-strangulation or assisted strangulation by a noose or hands to achieve a brief euphoric state.

"Unfortunately, it has taken the lives of many young people too early and it will take our precious Mason," Bogard said.

'Go be a hero, buddy.' Why #MasonsMessage is so important to the family of ‘choking challenge’ victim

A 2008 CDC report cited 82 children between ages six and 19 died after playing the choking game between 1995 and 2007, the most recent year the agency provided statistics.

Seventy-one of those children were male.

Bogard said her Facebook post was a plea to other parents to pay attention to their children's social media habits.

"I know our kids always complain that we're being too overprotective but it's ok, it's our job," she said.

In the post, Bogard said while the family is "devastated that we will never experience so many things with Mason again, we are able to find some comfort in the fact that Mason will save the lives of others" through organ donation.

"He would have wanted it this way," Bogard wrote in the post. "He was an extremely generous young man."

More from C&P:

• Wet weather putting Southwestern Indiana farmers behind in planting
• Moe's Southwest Grill coming to Evansville's West Side
• Former TV sports reporters Lance Wilkerson, Joe Downs out at UE athletics department