Dangerous TikTok challenge sends teenage boy to hospital and nearly gave another brain damage – leading mum to issue an urgent warning to other parents
- Teen, 13, rushed to hospital after attempting thumb blowing pass out challenge
- Sydney teen had hit his head on a table while attempting the challenge at home
- His mum has issued plea to other parents to talk to their kids about the dangers
- Growing craze on TikTok has resulted in teens suffering seizures and injuries
A mum has issued an urgent warning about a bizarre online craze that landed her teenage son in hospital with concussion.
The ‘thumb blowing pass out’ challenge has become a growing internet phenomenon with thousands of teens uploading videos of themselves performing the dangerous stunt to TikTok.
The daring challenge involves kids putting their thumbs in their mouth, squeezing their chests and repeatedly blowing through their fingers until they hyperventilate and experience a euphoric ‘high’.
The risky stunt almost ended in tragedy for a Sydney teen who hit his head on a table while attempting the challenge at home.
An urgent alert has been issued about the ‘thumb blowing pass out’ challenge. (pictured, a schoolgirl attempting the dangerous stunt in a TikTok video)
His mum will never forget the loud thud from the 13-year-old’s bedroom.
‘I ran up the stairs and as I got up the top of the stairs I could hear him like groaning,’ she told Seven News.
‘His bedroom window is only a metre-and-a-half away from his bed.’
‘If he had fallen through there… I wouldn’t want to think about what would have happened.’
She is now speaking out to make other parents aware with an impassioned plea for them to speak to their children about the dangers.
‘I’ve since discovered how dangerous this stunt is and children around the world lost lives,’ the mum added.
‘It’s actually quite scary and quite serious.’
‘I’ve since had a massive amount of anxiety over this video and others that are circulating on TikTok.’
A Sydney mum (pictured) is warning of parents of the dangers after her 13-year-old son suffered concussion while attempting the stunt at home
The challenge, which has been around for at least a decade, resulted in numerous teens being rushed to hospital after suffering seizures and injuries from falling.
A 12-year-old boy in the UK was placed in a medically induced coma for 36 hours after he attempted the stunt at school in 2013.
Sam Thomas, 12 of Newquay, Cornwall, blacked out and collapsed after he tried to copy an online video.
His parents rushed to the school to find their son’s body was ‘shutting down’ – and he was taken to hospital where doctors feared he would suffer brain damage.
‘I picked him up and he had no blue in his eyes, they were all black. There was nothing I could do to help him. He didn’t know who I was, he couldn’t talk, couldn’t walk,’ his father Robert recalled at the time.
Parents are urged to speak to their teens about the dangers surrounding the ‘thumb blowing pass out’ challenge (pictured)
Sam recovered but it was an anxious few days before doctors cleared him of permanent damage.
‘We were in disbelief that this could be so dangerous. It’s caused death before and many more children have suffered brain damage. Children at that age don’t understand things like this,’ his mum Celia said.
‘There’s no fear or danger. It’s really important children understand the risks and we’d encourage parents to talk to their children about this. I’m not angry or cross, because children are children. But no one wants to go through the 36 hours we did.’
In 2017, a Brisbane mum recalled the horror of her 10-year-old son attempting the pass out challenge after he came across a YouTube video titled ‘how to pass out safely’.
She found her son in a pool of blood after he hit his head on tallboy in his bedroom.
It resulted in five double stitches to the deep wound and a five hour stint in hospital.
The TikTok challenge is growing in popularity but has been around for at least a decade
‘He said that because it said ‘safely’ in the title, he knew that it wasn’t real and nothing bad could happen to him,’ his mum told KidSpot at the time.
‘That’s what really scared me, because I realised that it is absolutely logical for a ten-year-old to have that kind of reasoning.’
She was told by nurses kids had died while attempting similar stunts.
A similar challenge known as the choking game resulted in the death of a 13-year-old boy died in Brisbane in December 2016.
The tragedy occurred just months a Gold Coast teen almost died from playing the same game at school.
‘It is just so dangerous because it sounds so innocuous to a kid, breathing out and crouching down, it doesn’t sound like it could really hurt you,’ the mum warned.
‘But it can, you can lose oxygen to your brain, and end up brain damaged. You could fall and hit your head, you really could end up losing everything.’
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