[Lemon:] If you're a parent of a teenager or young person you should listen to this. It's a secret sex game that kills hundreds each year. I'm talking about autoerotic asphyxiation. It is said to have taken the lives of some big stars. David Carradine died in 2009, found hanging in the closet of a hotel room, and the lead singer of Inxs, Michael Hutchins in a similar incident in a Sydney hotel room in 1997. For those who don't know and this is not for the faint of heart, it is the act of choking yourself, usually by hanging, slowly slowing the oxygen to the brain while masturbating and supposedly, increasing sexual pleasure. Death by autoerotic asphyxiation is often covered up by the family of those killed, some even preferring to say it was suicide. Not our next guest though. Ed Dejusus' 13-year-old son died while performing the sexual act on himself and he wants other people to know about it. Ed, thank you so much for being here.
[Ed Dejesus, Son Died From "thrill Hanging":] You're welcome.
[Lemon:] You're doing OK?
[Dejesus:] You know, we're having quite a bit of trouble. We still don't want to accept that, you know, he's gone. But I have a strong urge to get the word out and at least be able to tell kids, teachers, parents, whoever I can, so that, you know, if this saves one person, I would be more than happy. It's just a terrible situation that we're going through.
[Lemon:] We'll talk more about knowledge in just a little bit, about informing people about this. But I want to go back and find out what happened on that day last week. Your wife found your son's body. Can you tell me about that?
[Dejesus:] Yes. You know, we're divorced and every Wednesday, Thursday, I pick them up after school. I was at the grocery store, and almost done grocery shopping and I get a call, and it was my ex- wife on the phone. And she was hysterical. And you know, yelling on the phone, I couldn't understand what she said. My heart just about stopped. I knew something was wrong. I ran out of the store. She had told me that my son tried to kill himself. And from that point forward, you know, as a parent, you start to beat yourself up, wondering, what did you do wrong? That wasn't the case. You know, for about, I don't even know, about a 36-hour period, I had been doing research, going online, looking for this, looking for that. But basically, what had happened was he had been doing his homework once she left. She dropped our girls off to cheerleading practice. She gets home, calls his name. He didn't answer and went to his door. His door was locked. She unlocked it. She went into his room and found him in the closet. And from there, she actually started to perform CPR and if it wasn't for what she had done, we wouldn't have had the time that we had to say goodbye. So I'm forever grateful for that. As far as from there forward, it was, you know, a week in the hospital that I can tell you I don't even feel like I was there.
[Lemon:] Yes.
[Dejesus:] It was just unbearably, you know, heartbreaking and my whole family, friends, just everybody. When I did find out I'm sorry, go ahead.
[Lemon:] No, I can't even imagine what you're going through and listen, this isn't anything new. It happened to a high school teacher, her son, the same thing, 20 years ago. So there's there is, you're right, a lack of information out there. As you mentioned in the beginning of this interview, this is a taboo conversation to be having because of the sexual component. When is the right time, you think, for parents to talk about this with their kids?
[Dejesus:] Well, you know, I have to tell you, too, it's not just, you know, kids doing this, you know, for masturbation. It's also kids doing it just to feel the, I guess, the way they feel when they get their oxygen back. You know, this is a situation that's been going on, and with the research I found, it was happening in Canada in the bathrooms in the school. And they changed a bunch of things in the school, and they added it to what they're teaching and pulled everything out that they could use, I guess, is what I'm trying to say. But it's a horrible situation and I'm just you know, we're all heartbroken.
[Lemon:] listen, I know that you it's your mission now to get schools to talk about this, to add this in part to their curriculum. I wish you luck. I think you're right on. Information is powerful and it does help. If it saves one life, as they say, it's all worth it. Ed Dejesus, thank you very much. We appreciate it, OK?
[Dejesus:] You're welcome.
[Lemon:] We'll be right back in a moment.