A young man runs towards a friend who has his arms held together in a clasp, the man uses his friend’s hands to boost himself into the air and into a backflip, but he is unsuccessful and his head and neck crash first into the ground. This is a video of 19-year-old Kumar, a resident of Tumakuru in Karnataka, as he attempts a backflip. He has sustained a severe spinal injury and is being treated at Victoria Hospital in the city.
Disclaimer: Graphic content, viewer discretion is advised
According to sources from the hospital, the young man was allegedly recording the stunt to upload to a popular social media platform. As he attempted to do a backflip in air, he faltered and his head hits the ground first. This has resulted in extensive damage to his spinal cord. Following this, he was taken to a nearby hospital and stabilised before being shifted to Victoria Hospital.
“He was brought in earlier today from a local hospital in Tumakuru, where they assessed him. We have examined him and have asked for some scans, as of now we cannot say how bad the damage is,” said one doctor from the hospital’s emergency department who tended to the man.
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.
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 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.