EVERETT — In the fantasy world of animated ninja warriors, the superheroes sometimes slip away from bad guys by hiding in the sand.
No superhero could rescue a 10-year-old Everett boy who died Monday after trying to recreate the trick.
Codey Porter apparently was mimicking Japanese anime superheroes Saturday when he asked friends to bury him in a backyard sandbox. He stopped breathing.
The fifth-grader died Monday afternoon at Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle.
“He passed peacefully, with his family at his side,” the boy’s family said in a statement released late Monday. “We appreciate all the support and prayers that we have received. We have decided to honor Codey’s memory by making him an organ donor, and a miracle for another family.”
Codey was a bright, imaginative boy with many friends, said Patricia Gauksheim, principal at Silver Firs Elementary School, where Codey was a student.
Snohomish County sheriff’s detectives determined Saturday’s incident was a tragic accident, spokeswoman Rebecca Hover said.
Accidents where children suffocate or are asphyxiated in the sand are rare, experts said.
That Codey intentionally was buried headfirst into the sand is very unusual, said Dr. Bradley Maron, a clinical fellow at Harvard Medical School in Boston. Maron has published two medical research papers on sand-related accidents.
Saturday’s accident is the first reported case of its type in Washington state, Maron said.
Codey was playing with five other children in a friend’s back yard Saturday when he was buried, Hover said.
Playmates told adults the boy was recreating a scene from “Naruto,” a popular Japanese animated cartoon show, said Joshua Quantrille, 30, Codey’s half brother. One character, Gaara of the Sand, fights by immobilizing opponents in the sand.
When the other children realized something was wrong, they pulled Codey out, Hover said. Adults performed CPR until aid arrived. The boy was whisked to an Everett hospital and later flown by helicopter to Children’s.
Counselors were at Codey’s school Monday and will be there again today, officials said.
“I cannot convey the depth of sorrow felt by the school community in the wake of this weekend’s accident,” principal Gauksheim said. “The school staff and members of the neighborhood are helping us maintain the school as a safe haven for those grieving.”
Gauksheim is planning to send a letter home to parents today that will include tips of what to watch for if their children might be having trouble with the loss of a friend or classmate.
When a child is buried in the sand, serious brain injury can occur within minutes because of asphyxiation, Maron said. Information about the extent of Codey’s injuries and the cause of death was not released Monday.
Sand accidents involving children are most frequent at the beach and involve tunneling, Maron said. That’s what happened in 1995 when Maron said he witnessed an accident while working as a lifeguard on Martha’s Vineyard, a island off Cape Cod. Ever since, he’s become more interested in developing research on the topic.
“There’s a risk to it that needs to be heeded and people need to be aware of it,” Maron said.
About 45 children have been reported buried in the sand in play accidents during the past 10 years worldwide, he said.
Typically, children get stuck after tunnels they are digging collapse, Maron said. Most incidents are fatal.
On Saturday, Codey and his friends apparently were playing a game based on “Naruto.”
The show is a popular comic book and television series, said Fred Patten, who has written several books about anime, a Japanese style of animation featured in “Naruto.”
“It can roughly be compared with the Superman comic books and TV series in America,” he said.
“Naruto” came to the U.S. in 2005 and runs on the Cartoon Network, Patten said.
“The series is based on the more fantastic folk tales about ninja in Japan — that they could become invisible, run at superhuman speeds, disguise themselves instantly as anything, survive the most deadly traps,” he said. “In this case, a favorite fictional ninja trick is that they can bury themselves in the sand or ground and wait for their victim to walk by, then instantly spring out of the ground to attack.”
In the series, Naruto, an orphaned boy with special powers, battles his nemesis, Gaara, said Larry Houston, a cartoon director and writer who draws inspiration from Anime.
“Gaara has a sand demon locked inside of him. He can basically manipulate sand,” Houston said.
On the TV show, Naruto’s youth and powers help him escape, Houston said.
Children sometimes mimic what they see on television, Dr. Donald Schifrin said. He’s a Bellevue physician who helps track the influence of the media for the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“Children can learn behavior from watching television,” he said.
Studies have linked a variety of incidents, from tragic accidents to animal cruelty, to the way children process the sometimes blurry line between reality and fantasy.
“When we’re dealing with children, the American Academy of Pediatrics is always telling parents to expect the unexpected,” he said. “Pay attention to all the information that comes into your children’s heads.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Reporter Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437 or jholtz@heraldnet.com.
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