momosug/RedditDoes anyone else remember the good old days of internet challenges when they were harmless and relatively painless?
I’m talking a spoonful of ground cinnamon here, or the gallon challenge, none of this eating actual poison or cooking your own arm.
Yeah, that’s right, the latest challenge for people who are desperate for validation from strangers is here – and it’s potentially the worst one yet.
Check out the challenge here:
Labelled as the ‘Hot Coil Challenge’, the aim of the challenge is exactly what you’d expect: hold a part of your body onto a hot coil for as long as possible.
Obviously, the challenge seems to have started on Reddit, and reactions are less than encouraging for the new trend.
The top comment on the post is quite simply:
Well, that was f*cking stupid.
momsug/RedditQuite frankly, it’s hard to disagree with that at all, just look at the smoke coming off that guy’s arm!
It ranks alongside the Tide Pod Challenge in terms of the stupidity and sheer danger involved in taking part – I mean, look at the scar on his arm, there is no way that’s going away any time soon.
If you need any more reminder about the true effects some of these daft challenges can have on people, look no further than this dramatisation of the true story of what happened to a boy after he ate three tide pods.
The boy, called JR in the educational video, told his friends he wanted to experience the ‘greatness of laundry detergent videos’ and become ‘Internet famous’.
The doctor in the video, Dr Bernard explains:
After putting three pods in his mouth, he felt a slight burning sensation waft up into his nose. Huddled over the sink, JR was prepared to spit out the detergent as soon as he started biting.
But as soon as he chewed down on the pods, biting into the vinyl plastic, laundry detergent poured into his mouth. He was suddenly overcome by a severe burning and numbing sensation on his tongue.
JR began coughing and retching and detergent began to seep down into his throat.
JR then inhaled some of the detergent into his trachea, corroding the tissue.
This resulted in the liquid making its way down into his lungs and with each cough, the poison was lodged deeper into his lungs.
JR vomitted and lost consciousness, grabbing his chest in pain while his lips turned blue.
Dr Bernard said:
Contact with surfaces like the oesophagus induces ‘Liquefactive Necrosis’, meaning as the tissue dies, it turns into a liquid pus, disintegrating the lining of the oesophagus as it rolls deep into the stomach and causing possible tissue perforation.
All of this happening within one second of contact.
TideHe explains the pods JR consumed were acidic and so corroded the lining of the oesophagus, finally inducing a death state due to clotted blood.
JR was able to make a recovery from his injuries but without immediate medical attention he could have lost his life.
The lengths some people will go to in order to get likes and comments online is really quite bewildering. Please don’t do these challenges.
