20 Minute Gas-Huffing Binge Kills 12-Year-Old Alaskan

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A 12-year-old boy in Mountain Village died Monday after voluntarily inhaling gas for nearly 20 minutes, Alaska State Troopers said.

Anthony Waskey and three other juvenile males went to the dock in Mountain Village and began huffing gas. Huffing is the inhalation of chemical vapors to achieve a feeling of euphoria or other altered mental or physical state.

Waskey became unresponsive after 15-20 minutes of huffing. He was carried by the three other boys to his residence after he became unresponsive.

CPR was performed there until local health aids arrived and pronounced Waskey dead, officials said. They said his family was present at the time.

The boy's body will be taken to the State Medical Examiners Office in Anchorage for an autopsy.

Mountain Village is a community of about 800 on the north bank of the Yukon River, 470 miles northwest of Anchorage.