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Viral ‘Skullbreaker Challenge’ on TikTok Leaves Many Hospitalized

A viral challenge on Tiktok has been the reason many victims have been admitted into the hospital. It involves two people tricking a third person and tripping them by kicking their legs out from under them. A victim of this deceiving challenge, Olivia Ross has told Koin News that when students asked her to be apart of the challenge, she “didn’t know what was going to happen.”

“They didn’t tell me that they just told me we were going to jump for a video. Of course, I was excited since they were upperclassmen and they were asking me to be in their video,” said the ninth-grader.

Another victim, 13-year-old Kathleen DeJesus told ABC News, “I couldn’t get up because I couldn’t feel my hands. I couldn’t feel my legs, my feet, nothing. I was numb.” She spent two days in the hospital after suffering from a concussion. “I was screaming that I needed an ambulance. I was thinking like ‘Oh my God I’m going to lose my life over this game,’ I should have never done it.”

Nathan Richards, a medical doctor at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, “It can be associated with a variety of serious and even life-threatening injuries including, but not limited to, bruising, hematoma, skull fracture, neck strain, neck fracture, concussion and long term complications of concussion, bleeding in or around the brain, loss of consciousness, paralysis, and death.”

Ross and her mother have teamed up with a nonprofit organization against bullying called, “Teaching Kindness Matters.”

DeJesus says that she feels the challenge needs to stop because it is now “getting out of hand.”

Since the concern regarding users doing the challenge has risen, TikTok tells ABC News that safety is a priority of the company and that they, “do not allow content that encourages or replicates dangerous challenges that might lead to injury.”