The 19-year-old man from Tumakuru who made news last week after injuring himself while attempting a backflip has succumbed to his injuries. Eight days ago, Kumar was admitted to a hospital after he injured his spine while trying to attempt a backflip.
A video had shown 19-year-old Kumar attempting to do a backflip in the air but then faltering, with his head hitting the ground first.
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The incident was recorded on June 15 and Kumar was rushed to hospital on the same day. According to reports, Kumar was a performance artist working with an orchestra troop called ‘Ramu Melodies’.
Kumar was being treated for severe spinal injuries at Bengaluru’s Victoria Hospital. TNM had earlier reported how Kumar’s friend was recording the stunt allegedly to upload onto a popular social media platform.
Speaking to TOI, his brother-in-law said that Kumar himself was unaware of social media as he did not have a smartphone of his own. But it was on the request of his friends that he performed the stunts.
"He wanted to showcase his talent to the world and participate in dance reality shows," he added.
Kumar had sustained extensive damage to his spinal cord. The spinal cord is a structure which is responsible for a range of sensory and motor functions. Damage to the spinal cord can result in either temporary or permanent distortion in these functions.
However, this incident is not the first time that people have been injured attempting to perform stunts for social media. Several deaths have earlier been reported as the result of people attempting to recreate various stunts or photos to post to social media.
In one such instance in 2017, a 13-year-old boy from Hyderabad died after he took a selfie from the top of a railway coach. The boy, identified as K Sai Kumar, was taking selfies atop an empty, stationary railway coach at Moula Ali railway station when he came into contact with a high-tension wire and was electrocuted. He succumbed to burn injuries he sustained later at Osmania General Hospital in Hyderabad