Please, do NOT try this at home.
An American teenager has had 48 surgical staples in his head, and may have permanently lost vision in one eye after partaking in a viral video challenge.
Skylar Fish had his arms and legs were duct-taped together by friends as part of the Duct Tape Challenge. The aim of the stunt is to try and break free of the restraints in the shortest time possible. There are over 234,000 videos on YouTube showing people attempting to outdo each other in the challenge.
News.com.au reports that while attempting to break free, Fish fell forward, being unable to stop himself or brace with his arms, he caught his face on a metal window frame. The fall shattered his eye-socket and cheekbone, and he may have suffered irreparable damage to his vision.
The 14-year-old boy also hit his head on the concrete and suffered a brain aneurysm that required emergency surgery.
“If he would have hit on it differently, an inch over, he could have died,” Fish’s mother, Sarah Fish, told Fox US affiliate KCPQ. “If his friend didn’t flip him over when he was having a seizure and choking up blood, he could have died.”
The Duct Tape Challenge follows a series of viral video trends with the potential to cause serious injury, including the Condom Challenge, where participants risk suffocation, and the Kylie Jenner Lip Challenge, where some social media users burst blood vessels in their mouths.
“They’re just looking at what’s fun, what’s cool, what’s going to impress their friends,” Ms Fish told KCPQ. “I can break out of this duct tape. I’m the strongest. I’m the best. They’re not thinking what if I fall and hit my head.”
* Featured image via Twitter/KIRO 7.