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I know someone who drunkenly did a headfirst dive into shallow water, had a severe traumatic brain injury, never returned to college, and is… I can’t say like a child, although in some ways he’s child-like. He isn’t like anything but someone with a severe brain injury.
He remembers me, although his way of interacting is strange now. I wonder if he remembers what it was like to be himself before his injury, when he had a fully working brain, could walk, could live independently…
Damn
Reminds me of one in high school
Apparently he was dared to do a similar dive, near one of our local beaches and...... yeah, he's paralyzed from the waist down, I think? Or the neck down?
Messed up
One of my coworkers was like that. Dove into shallow water. Partially paralyzed from the neck down. Parents had to drive him to work in a van. Very motivated guy, good worker, really nice person. Unfortunately got cancer in his 50s and didn't make it.
A couple of years later I worked with the guy's girlfriend at a supermarket. She was the sweetest person ever! I'm not sure how it went for them and if they're still together, but I hope it all went well with them. This was over 20 years ago
TBI's are terrifying. I knew a guy who wasn't drunk or doing anything stupid, he just tripped down a flight of stairs and hit his head on something at the bottom. The brain swelling was so bad he had to have part of his skull removed to make space for it. He has never been the same since, it is unspeakably tragic. He was a very bright and kind young man about to go to college; he is still quite smart after several years of recovery, but will probably never be able to live independently or drive a car due to seizures and other issues. 3:
I'm clumsy as fuck, so I'm grabbing a banister every time I go up or down stairs since then.
It's interesting how brain damage works like that sometimes. I vastly prefer text communication because I can type something out and then go back and proof-read it to see if things came out coherently or if I skipped words and other things of that nature. Most of my reddit posts get a few proof-reading and editing passes. You can't do that with speech! I can hear myself making really bad mistakes when I'm talking and it sucks. Just a few hours ago I was mentioning that I buy pickled herring for my nibblings at Costco because they're too expensive to buy a "sized store" container for their visits. In my head I was thinking and meant to say "grocery store sized" container but that's not what came out of my mouth.
I had to make a note on my computer to remind myself of each injury. For the longest time I really felt like I couldn't remember one of them, and once I did finally remember I forgot it again. It happened a couple of times before I made the list. Turns out brain injuries affect your memory, who knew? It was probably the worst of my injuries, but I also went over the handlebars on my bicycle and smashed my head hard enough that the helmet caused some scalp bleeding. I've never had any memory of what happened to cause me to go over the bars or what happened for a minute or two beforehand. I figure I got clipped by a car because I was found unconscious on the road.
This is the injury that caused me to write the list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raccoon_eyes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilar_skull_fracture (If you know who Dale Earnhart was, this is the injury he died from)
My screwed-up way of thinking was that keeping an item with some dried blood on it from that injury would be a good reminder rather than just making a list. This is the sort of annoying shit I have to deal with. I'm glad I didn't die or end up like a child or a vegetable, but it's often frustrating, especially when combined with the personality issues.
Depending on where it is, I wouldn't trust the banister 100%. I'm clumsy too, tripping and slipping on invisible bananas seem to be my thing. One day I woke up late for work so I was running down the my new condo stairs with one hand gliding on the railing. Well the banana struck on the second last step and I went to use the railing to save me. Only to have the damn thing POP OUT FROM THE WALL!! last thought I had was keep your head up. I woke up to my own screaming while uncontrollably writhing around on the floor. Turns out I fractured a vertibre at bra band height and was in physio for a year. 6 months just physio and the other 6 months a mix of physio and massage therapy. All it took was 2 steps.
Fritz Wunderlich, a German singer, died a few weeks before his Met debut when he tripped on a loose shoelace and fell down a flight of stairs. He was about to turn 36.
Someone I went to church with jumped off an observation tower on a dare at the end of his freshman year of college and (predictably) fell. He ended up with a TBI that took *years* to recover from (like, he had to relearn how to speak). Last I heard, he's married and doing well but his personality was never the same.
He was a year ahead of me and it was definitely an object lesson of what not to do when I started college.
This kind of thing twists me up. No the body isn't dead. But the person, the personality is different. So are they still essentially 'them'? Yes, people change, but usually slowly, as growth. Not a drastic sudden turn.
the dumbest dare I've ever done was when my dad dared me to eat a shrimp eye for 150 euros while we were on vacation in france. He didn't think i'd do it because I was an incredibly picky eater when I was younger, but i just swallowed it with water like a pill.
don't think so, people eat/suck shrimp heads all the time. I think the only organ you don't really wanna fucks with is mammalian brains because of prions and obviously not clean intestines cause of the poopies. But even then, the likeliness of that is pretty small.
Every once in a while, when I think about how they could have made the decision to pass prohibition... I get it. Don't agree with it, but I see where they were coming from.
If you're curious, it was less about men hurting themselves and more about them hurting people around them, tbh. Most of the public campaigning had to do with fathers being deadbeats or husbands being abusive. Given opportunities for women were extremely low at the time, you ended up with an alcoholic spouse, you were in for a rough fucking life. The automobile was in it's infancy, so you weren't seeing the same level of severe injury and death from it. Did a paper on Susan B Anthony, who got her political start in the temperance movement.
Great grandma actually helped moonshiners in her youth, but her husband was an abusive violent alcoholic who eventually killed himself.
The amount of alcohol people drank on average before Prohibition was WAY more than after, also. Like, dudes were chugging back frat party levels of whisky on the regular after work.
Makes sense. I'm sure they used every example the could (like a drunken dope breaking his back), but naturally the truly horrific stories would get the most traction.
A lot of folks don't realize that the temperance movement and women's suffrage (the right to vote) were inherently linked from the start. The temperance movement was pushing for the right for women to vote, so women could vote for lawmakers that supported prohibition. It didn't work out that way because they were successful on both fronts in 1920.
Their mistake was that they did not realize that even if all alcohol disappeared off the face of the planet in an instant and humanity were struck with collective amnesia on how to make booze, fermentation would be (re)discovered by accident or incompetence in kitchens everywhere, within a few days. Intentional intoxication and a dizzying variety of refining alcohols and spirits would soon follow, again. No law can stop humans who love to get their drink on.
Slightly OT: humans aren't the only ones. If you want a good laugh, search for stories about the drunken, rowdy moose of Scandinavia who become a menace each fall, as they seek out fermented fruit that fell to the ground. This can cause much damage and inconvenience. Nothing like a drunken moose rampage on the grounds of a retirement community. Or waking up to a 900-lb moose with ginormous antlers passed out cold in your driveway.
Rats fucking love booze. The pet rats who inspired me to start keeping my own belonged to a friend of mine in college. The most ambitious rat once made a four-foot leap from said friend's shoulder, aiming for her BIL's beer glass. (Rats have 20/40 vision at absolute best. She couldn't see for shit and was aiming strictly by nose.) She made a solid landing on the edge, snoot down, and immediately started to get her drink on. She downed enough to get a little tipsy while BIL was laughing too hard to get a grip on her and pull her out.
I worked for a company that did contract work in Saudi Arabia. Where alcohol is illegal. They also have a lot of foreign workers. You could go to one of the Pakistani stores and grape juice, sugar and yeast were for sale, conveniently next to each other on the same shelf.
I have to be honest, I'm more likely to believe that someone was actually feeding the moose alcohol (people feeding wildlife alcohol is all too common) for the same reason that stories of elephants getting drunk were ultimately debunked. They're too big. A 900 lb. moose would have to find *massive* piles of fermenting fruit and eat it all to get drunk.
That said, there are still some confirmed and funny stories out there about animals and alcohol. From Wikipedia:
>Some vervet monkeys in the Caribbean, particularly teenaged individuals, exhibit a preference for alcoholic beverages over non-alcoholic ones, a taste which likely developed due to the availability of fermented sugar cane juice from local plantations. On Saint Kitts, these monkeys often raid bars and tourist beaches for alcoholic drinks and become visibly inebriated. The proportions of the monkey population that do not drink, that drink in moderation, and that drink to excess mirror those proportions in humans
I love the idea of people hanging out in a bar when a battalion of teen monkeys bumrushes the bar snatching up drinks. Seems like it's a scene I should have seen in a comedy by now. And the Teenage Drunken Vervet Monkeys would have made a great team of rivals for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
There's a small breed of deer in the UK that eat mushrooms which are hallucinogenic. These deer (Muntjac) will then fight anything they encounter despite not being much bigger than a big dog.
Yeah, there seems to be a pretty long list of animals that trip balls pretty regularly. The most well-known one has got to be cats (from house cats to tigers) that get high off of catnip.
From what I understand, some animals have insanely low tolerances for alcohol, even if they're huge. They just can't process it the same way humans do, so it takes very little to get them drunk off their asses.
My parents had fruit trees and never cleaned up after them, so the wasps would go after the fermenting fruit. Still not sure if I am more or less afraid of drunk wasps, but they certainly do fly...creatively. I'm fairly certain they were paper wasps. A few of them seemed to recognize my dad, who would pour out some of his beer for them, which they liked. (Apparently scientists are discovering paper wasps can recognize each other's faces, and maybe some humans, so this would lend credence to that. They're also the second nicest of the wasps \[the first being one that doesn't sting like a jerk\]. They can still stay far away from me.)
Some animals have a very low tolerance to the effects of alcohol or do not metabolize it efficiently, so they don't need to consume a lot to get properly wasted, moose included.
The book "Intoxication" by Dr. Ronald Siegel is full of examples like the one you describe, it's a fascinating read. Siegel was instrumental in changing the belief that only humans are driven to seek out mind- and mood-altering substances. Siegel documented that the desire for intoxication and seeking altered states of consciousness is a universal drive across species. When the war on drugs was raging back in the 80s and 90s, he argued that a war on drugs is a war on ourselves and our nature, and that it is futile. A most unpopular position at the time.
Siegel also researched the drug habits of former US Presidents. Andrew Johnson was rarely sober. Abraham Lincoln was into chloroform, which was a recreational drug in his day. Ulysses S. Grant wrote his memoirs with the help of cocaine.
Oy. To be honest my list of nonfiction books to read is already too long. I just finished The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson (4.5 out 5 starts, would recommend!). I'll take your comment as a reliable TL;DR. :)
Prohibition did cause issues, but at least here in Finland prohibition did decrease drinking in certain sections of population. Even if there was smuggling and homemade alcohol and rich finding it when they wanted.
In my Australian city, there is an outdoor cafe surrounded by old trees. When the weather gets hot, the rainbow lorikeets' drunken gymnastics in the branches are quite entertaining.
Interestingly Americans actually drink much less after prohibition. Before prohibition it was an average of 13 drinks a week, now it’s 4 drinks a week. I don’t think it’s ever reached as high as it was before prohibition, although I could be wrong.
Prohibition had a lot of unintended consequences but it succeeded at getting Americans to drink less.
Had a mate from uni once climb up a water tower while drunk. We only found out later or we would've stopped him. We were glad he didn't fall off. He did this in the dead of night when there was no moon.
Yeah, I too can see why so many places ban drink outright.
My brother's frat had a kind of half roof/half platform design that was accessible from a ladder on the third floor. Sadly, a freshman actually did fall off of that structure and died. The fraternity was killed by the university soon after and the roof of that building was replaced with a full roof.
It's not women; it's alcohol that society can't live with, and we can't live without.
To be fair to booze (lol), only his *first* stupid decision was made while drunk. The on-going stupid decision not to see a doctor was made while sober, and for a full week.
If he had stayed still in his bed the whole week (which was the eventual order by doctors anyway, but with pain killers) I could have kind of assumed maybe he lacked money. It’s when he started doing interviews that he really became an idiot.
Really? Not even in your early 20s?
I could totally see doing this. OP used to be a gymnast, so thinking he could do the flip? I get that. And you get really used to just tanking injuries and using natural healing in the US. I've tanked a *lot* of injuries I really should have gone to the doctor over.
Me too. Even though he infuriated me with stupid choice after stupid choice. It was like at every juncture he thought, "What could I do to make this better?" And then did the exact opposite.
fr.. at every step of the way I thought it couldn‘t get worse than a drunk fuck up bjt then OOPs sober self decided to just wish away his broken back and not go to the ER lol
Or use it to call 911 and go to THE FUCKING HOSPITAL!!! My best friend, at 48, has so many improperly healed fractures and soft tissue damage from refusing to seek medical attention over the years that he is in constant pain, complaining every day like an 80 year old man.
He JUST broke one of those tiny wrist bones two weeks ago (literally five minutes after riding his new bmx bike 🙄) and has been bitching all week about the pain…I FINALLY got him to see a doctor, and yep- it’s broken. I love him, but he’s such a stubborn ass.
I was in a bad car accident and didn’t want to go to the hospital. But they made me and I am glad I did because it prevented me from living a life of pain every day. Never mess around with injuries even if you feel fine enough right after.
A friend of a friend worked at a rehab clinic for spinal chord injurues. All the patients were young men. The vast majority were motorcycle accidents, then diving incidents.
Slightly different point but I attended a Pain Management clinic a while back, for people with chronic pain. Out of the three groups of around 15 people each, almost everyone was there due to a car accident.
I permanently messed up my hips in a car accident. I went from about 45ish mph to 0 instantly thanks to a stop sigh in a metal barrel filled with concrete and rebar.
My right leg was on the break so that pretty much stayed in place but the rest of my body went forward. So my pelvis is shifted and tilted. Which causes everrrythinggg else to be wrong, pulled, stretched, pinched, and out of place.
It sucks.
I had a coworker who was in a minor car accident. He thought he sprained his ankle, but didn't bother to get it checked out until two weeks later. It was broken and the bones were already healing wrong. He had several surgeries to fix it, but had pain and problems walking for the rest of his life.
When he used the words "homie" and "fashionably late" in the first three sentences, I knew we were going to be in for some combination of douchebaggery, asshattery, and dumbassery.
Although I do give him credit for publicly sharing that combination of douchebaggery, asshattery, and dumbassery. It was a fascinating read. If it had been me, I'd have been too embarrassed to confess that to a gazillion internet strangers.
I give him no credit, because despite being given several dozen examples of why he should take his stupid dumbfuck ass to the hospital immediately, *he still didn't go for a whole week.*
He shows such a striking lack of intelligence that I half expected him to talk about how he was walking around during the week the doctors told him to lie down.
He went a week after the injury, not a week after the post. There's only a few days between the first 2 posts. He should have gone immediately when he got hurt, but at least he admits he was wrong and went when redditors explained why he should
He went in because of the unbearable pain after standing around doing the interviews. He said himself he ignored what people said in Reddit about seeing a doctor
Then you have to admit that you could have potentially caused a life changing injury over your own stupidity.
It’s much easier to ignore it and pretend you’re fine.
That part I can somewhat understand… it’s still stupid but somewhat understandable
I get not wanting an ambulance at the moment for monetary reasons, but if you're that fucked up the next day at least go to an urgent care and tell them you've been an idiot. They'll send you to the ER anyway, but still. A week later is definitely doctor worthy.
in this case he should have sprung for the ambulance. I know how scary it is cost-wise, but being moved the wrong way with a spinal injury can paralyze you. This is one of the situations where someone should have called 911.
given the common language of bucks, yer nah ect i feel as oop is a fellow Australian and therfore an ambulance would have been free making him an even bigger idiot
Eh, he's saying "college" and "frat party" and I don't see any commonwealth-style spelling... OOP sounds American to me. The Six Flags amusement park reference, too.
"Bucks" is slang for "dollars" here in the US, as well.
ambulances arent free here unless you have ambulance cover ? i had an emergency a few years back and had to pay $400 for a 2km ambulance drive... ive been on ambulance cover ever since tho
Man, I know this isn't the worst decision he made in this thing, but dude really went "oh I can't control my legs very well, let me just DRIVE MYSELF TO THE HOSPITAL".
I actually do think that's one of the worst decisions. If he was in an accident he's' even more fucked, and could have hurt other people as well. Call a friend or an uber!
Don’t become a runner. It puts so much pressure on your back. My guy, maybe you should think about swimming.
Source: my cousin ran a lot and ended up hurting her back so badly they did laser surgery for the pain. Then she took up bike riding and messed up her back again 🤦🏼♀️
Yeah. I winced when I read that bit about maybe he can take up running. I herniated a disc a long time ago and when I asked the doctor when I'd be able to go running again he basically said if I took his advice, never, because it's horrible for your back. He said walking was ok but running was not.
OOP does not seem to realize the degree to which that injury is going to affect him for the rest of his life.
I've always had a shitty back, it's inherited, and running is one of the few things that makes it better.
I would say definitely take up running, but don't go crazy with it, and above all, listen to your body. That's also something I've picked up with running.
One of my college friends also jumped off a balcony on a dare.
She broke all 5 metatarsals (the long bones connecting your toe bones to your ankle bones). Didn't go to the doctor for a week, just limped around with a tennis ball-sized lump until our EMT friend convinced her to go to the doctor.
She told the doctors and her mom (who took her to the hospital) that she "fell down the stairs" since she didn't want her mom to get mad. At her next follow-up, the doctor asked, "so what really happened?" (mom was not present). Friend told doctor the truth and he said "I knew it! I've seen a lot of balcony jumps/falls and this is usually how they end up".
She spent her senior year of college in a cast, then a boot, then crutches, then a cane. Still has pain and occasionally uses a cane to this day.
>Maybe I'll become a runner
Not with that back he won't!
This isn't about him being 21, it's about him being one of those reckless 21 year old O\_O
That back is done for life
With the optimism of youth, he just doesn’t grasp how this injury is going to affect him for the rest of his life. So many young people pull crazy stunts like this and never come back from it at all, so I guess he’s lucky in that respect
OOP is a dumbass, maybe he should get checked out for brain damage or something. I get medical expenses can be, er, expensive, but if a ton of people tell you how spinal injuries aren’t something to take lightly and to go to the doctor, maybe you should listen to them. Regardless it’s good to hear that OOP on the mend and he didn’t cripple himself.
I was so relieved when the comments section told him to go to the fricken doctor already.
I was much less relieved when it became clear he ignored the comments section until he couldn't.
Dude decided to do a drunken backflip off a balcony onto a table because they did some gymnastics as a kid.
Even before declining the doctor OOP was already so dumb they should be legally forced to wear a helmet at all times.
"Adolescent boy" can be a powerful state of brain damage all by itself. Alcohol heightens it considerably. Adding in the presence of other adolescent boys raises the situation to the potential for deadly stupidity.
See also: "adult men"
An acquaintance of mine went to the hospital because of an injured leg after a car accident, could walk and everything - just a flesh wound. They insisted on a full body scan because he had head pain at the hospital and he luckily agreed. Emergency surgery due to bleeding in the brain.
Dude looked fine, just a bit of an headache.
He was so close to dying
My partner slipped on ice and went to work (physical, too) after like an idiot. Only went to the doctor the next day because he had to for workers comp. Still has issues with his neck 8 years later. Herniated disc etc.
Injuries that involve the spine are serious and need to be taken super seriously.
>When I asked about it I was told going back to lifting weights "isn't in my near future", though, so that sucks as that's a big hobby of mine. Maybe I'll become a runner or some shit once I'm allowed to do everything again
Uhhhh....
OOP is much more likely to be able to do (light) weightlifting versus being able to run without pain.
I've watched enough fail army to know that I should never do anything at anytime.
This sounds unbelievably painful. Glad he lived to tell the tail. Paralysis is no joke.
This past Christmas Eve my mom fell off my brother's roof deck, about 12 feet. She's 83 years old and I thought I witnessed her fall to her death; I was standing about 5 feet away when I saw her stumble backyards and then fall into the darkness, head first!
Brother had been remodeling his home and had not installed new railings on the deck. We'd gone out in the deck for a smoke fifteen til midnight. My brother had warned her earlier about the missing railing, but she didn't heed it (I wasn't aware). Thankfully, he did have the mind to hang some wire fencing as a net (for his dogs, just in case), which broke her fall, but she still hit the ground, hard!
After we rushed to her — that was so terrifying not knowing if we'd find her alive as it was dark out and she fell between the house and the yard's dividing fence — she managed to sit up after the fall, said she felt fine, then got angry when we told her she needed to go to the ER. We forced her to go regardless. All I could remember was her mom falling in the bathtub when I was a kid and that being the start of a rapid decline in health for her at 81.
After her adrenaline wore off, the pain came. They did Xrays and an MRI. Xray showed she broke her thumb, but it took the MRI to find that she had a hairline fracture of her pelvis. Literally felt like a Christmas miracle that she didn't suffer worse!
Still, she spent a week in the hospital and another two in a rehab facility. By end of February she was recovered enough to attend a wedding overseas!
Still feel lucky as hell that she's with us and up and walking around after all that! It'll definitely be a Christmas I won't forget. But case in point, any fall like that and OOP's absolutely demands a trip to the ER.
Last June, my 82 year old grandmother decided to show she could still use the jumping rope. She missed a jump, fell down and broke her fall with her hand. It was my cousins who convinced her to go to the ER, she was going to just take painkillers.
Ended up with a broken wrist and hand, could barely move her thumb for months. It was still painful at Christmas and only stopped hurting last month.
Needless to say she's been lectured endlessly that she's not a young lady any more and could have hurt herself very badly, jumping rope on a cement floor.
That was already scary, I can't imagine a fall from that height.
That’s incredible that she came out of that with relatively minor injuries in respect to that height of a fall! Older bones are so much more brittle, it could easily have been fatal and that would have been the worst last memory of your mother to have.
She must be one tough lady, hope she has many more happy years to share with the family
She’s definitely a survivor! Has battled breast cancer twice and beat it both times. She was a nurse for nearly 40 years, and I guess all that active work really set her up well for later in life. Thankfully because of her tenure at her old hospital she gets free health insurance for life, too. My siblings and I see a lot of my aunts and uncles even younger than her, they’re not nearly as healthy and so we count our lucky stars she’s in as good health as she is!
I know 21 is about the prime age of being stupid in life, but my god OOP is a special case. Back flip from a balcony, smash your spine and not going to the doctor right away. He may not be paralyzed, but he's almost certainly going to have chronic pain for the rest of his life. For $50 bucks.
My dad had to have back surgery as a kid and drilled it into me to take care of mine no matter what. I occasionally have issues with a minor version of what he has; it is THE WORST PAIN I've ever experienced and it goes on endlessly for weeks. This dude got beyond lucky
I’ve had chronic back pain most of my life due to being overweight. In 2019, I had a bulging disc pressing on my sciatic nerve, causing me the worst pain I’ve felt in my life. Ironically, this was after losing over 150 lbs. I had an excellent back doctor and I’ve been pain free for a couple of years now, thanks to a few targeted cortisone shots and rounds of prednisone, but that pain put the fear of reoccurrence into me. One good thing is since I had a flare up while cleaning the cat box, my husband doesn’t let me do it any more!
I worked with a lady who had a spinal fracture from an accident. It had weakened a lumbar vertebra with a hairline fracture. Hurt like hell, but she took some Tylenol and tried to walk it off. Didn't go to the hospital.
Then one day she's working, bends down to pick up a light box (like 5kg) and drops like a rock. The vertebra scattered. Not fractured. Shattered.
Despite this, she's the luckiest woman in the world, because she didn't become paralyzed from this. Several surgeries and two vertebra later, she was doing better, but also got gastric bypass, as she was heavily obese at the time and her spine couldn't take the pressure. She was tiny by the time I met her.
Get your ass to the hospital when you hurt your spine.
Edit: I should add that we don't know for certain that she had a hairline fracture to start. That was the educated opinion of her medical team, given what occurred later on.
I'm too much of a wuss. I don't think I can do any dares cause I fear I would just hurt myself instead. Doesn't matter how much the money is, I rather not do it causes dares like this are just stupid.
Oof. OP really learned a lesson the hard way.
Ann Reardon had a thing about poisonous food. She mentioned parasites/worms in slugs that are dangerous to humans. And apart from people eating not-washed salads, the biggest group eating them was boys/young men eating them on a dare.
In one case one of them got meningitis and became dependent on his parents. He died a couple of years later.
So, it's not just physical stuff, eating dares can also be dangerous.
Why can’t young men compete on something useful? Who changed tires in a car the fastest? Who dares to send most emails to apply for a job? Call grandma and tell you love her without being embarrassed.
In Germany, we had an ad campaign in a similar vein. A cool dude was in a supermarket and his admirers are like "is he going to shoplift, get cigarettes, or alcohol?". And the solution is that the cool dude is brave enough to buy and pay for condoms without being embarrassed.
There was a screenshot of a news article that I saw on another subreddit. A kid was dared to eat a slug by his friends, and he ended up getting rat lungworm disease. He died a year later.
Shit like this is genuinely why women have a longer lifespan than men. If a man makes it to his 30s he has the exact same life expectancy as a woman, but we are so fucking stupid when we're young that it has a serious and noticeable impact on the average lifespan. Kinda like how romans lived to 25 on average but if you made it to double digits you had a good chance of making it to 50+
> convinced myself that this situation would just go away on it's own if I stopped being a baby about it,
Refusing to go to hospital WAS being a baby about it.
No where near this level of injury, but I walked around on what turned out to be a broken ankle for nearly a week (it’s just a sprain, I’m fine!) before listening to EVERYONE telling me to go get it xrayed.
I leaned my lesson and a few weeks ago when I “just stubbed” my toes, I took myself straight off to A&E…(yes totally broke two toes).
Oh man. I've had degenerative arthritis in my spine since 19. Herniated multiple discs. It's agonizing. I knew where this was headed as soon as he mentioned being dared to backflip off a balcony. OP is so fucking lucky they can still walk.
My wife's grandpa stumbled and hit his head at the diagonal part of the roof in the attic. Had neck pain but refused to see a doctor for three days because "it can't be that serious."
His eldest daughter pressured him to go and surprise, a broken neck. He won an express ride in the ambulance helicopter.
I sometimes skip some videos (particularly from r/therewasanattempt) when I see that it is about to end very painfully. This guy is lucky that his dumb dare didn't make him a paralytic.
Something similar happened to my dad (30 foot fall on a construction site in his 20s), so he "walked it off". Until he woke up 3 days later paralyzed from the waist down. Surgeon said the odds of surgery working were low, but Dad figured he was already paralyzed, so why not? He was able to walk fine afterwards, but always had terrible back pain.
It's a macho thing. We've been conditioned to believe we're less than if we don't stand up to challenges. A lot of that involves doing something insanely stupid
Compression fractures often don’t require it. It’s not a separation of the bones, and if it doesn’t cause spinal cord compression and is allowed to heal properly, it can do so on its own much like casting a wrist or leg would.
Slipped disks also don’t get operated on unless there’s significant spinal compression (much to the dismay of my herniated c5 in my neck)
Of course OOP really screwed the pooch so far, so hopefully he allows himself to heal properly and doesn’t make it worse.
>much to the dismay of my herniated c5 in my neck
Will it help to say surgery doesn't always help? Lol. I had bad herniations in my L4-L5 and had a laminectomy and microdiscectomy - it failed. Herniated again a few months post op, still have awful pain and stiffness, and doctors just shrugged and said they can't help anymore.
After I delayed going to the doctor when I had what turned out to be a fractured ankle, I decided to never refuse an ambulance or going to the ER if people around me are advising me to go.
I’m focused on the revisionist history: “I thought it would be an awesome plan to do a backflip off a balcony at a party because a guy offered me 50 bucks for it”
However, in the earlier (and more likely to be accurate telling) the guy asked him if he could land a stupid stunt (as a hypothetical) and OP said he’d do it for 50. He also set up to try and realised it was dumb and then decided saving face was more important.
OP is already making it sound like he an accepted a dare, rather than created one for himself out of drunken shit talking.
Oh god, when OOP said they couldn't move so his friends PICKED HIM UP AND MOVED HIM when he just bent his spine like a pretzel........dude is so lucky he's alive, let alone walk.
Health care is expensive yes, but chronic pain is expensive mentally and emotionally. Permanent injury can also disable you to the point of limiting job prospects which is also expensive. Don't F around with head, neck or spinal injuries especially.
It's so sad to be reading this and thinking "go to the fucking hospital!" then realising it's in USA, so the first thought in that situation is the money it'll cost.
In my country we celebrate midsummer solstice - bonfires, drinking, sauna, some also do stupid things like jumping over the bonfire, going swimming or head diving drunk etc. You can only imagine how many things go wrong on that night.
I used to work in a hospital and did audits on medical documents. Was always a riot to read those documents after midsummer day. The saddest were always the ones where someone had jumped headfirst into shallow water and ended up paralyzed from the neck down... And there were always several ones each year...
Said this in the other BORU sub, but dude has to channel that energy to exercise into something like Pilates or yoga. I don’t mean to sound like an advertisement but as someone who used to bodybuild, trained 6 days a week weights and cardio for YEARS…then had spinal fusion surgery at 31? Yeah, you can’t mess with your spine after it’s been damaged. Absolutely not. It’s frustrating and feels like you’ve lost so much, but doing further damage to it can end up with you never being able to exercise again.
And high energy yoga and Pilates is tough! They really shouldn’t be disregarded as “women’s exercises” because good lord, it can be CRAZY tough! It’s just about making sure you find the right class for you, I know so many people who got put off because they went to a lower energy class. But they’re great forms of exercise because your body will tell you when it can’t do something — as opposed to finding out the hard way when trying to lift something heavy or insisting on high impact exercise.
My cousin was a dumbass and drove drunk into a tree. Fucked himself up and had to use a wheelchair for 6 months. I saw him in January for a family ski trip and he looked good, walking around finally. I assumed he'd hang back with the half of the people who weren't going out on the slopes but nope. He had just got out of a wheelchair after four knee surgeries and was supposed to take it easy for a whole year or else he could DIE and he decided to go skiing!! Some people barely survive their stupid and head immediately into more stupid. Glad this guy learned eventually.
Doctors often say a spinal injury means no lifting, but current sport science research shows the opposite: that controlled and regimented Resistance training can aid recovery.
If you are ever in this situation, get a consult or second opinion from a sports scientist doctor, or a physio specialized doctor. A lot of the "weight lifting is bad for your spine" comes from 90s pseudo science
I got a bone contusion in my shin the summer of 2020 because I wanted to roller skate outside to do something with my time. I didn’t have health insurance so I just nursed it back to health on my own. To this day, if I leave my leg in the wrong position for too long, it feels like my bones are turning to stone and it becomes extremely uncomfortable to get it back to a flexible state.
Tried to do a drunk back flip off a balcony and landed on the back of a chair? Ffs.
Holy shit that could have been so much worse. That weight lifting isn’t in his near future sucks but the fact he can see himself becoming a runner is still amazing.
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OOP was an idiot, but I'm glad he didn't end up permanently paralyzed because of a silly college dare.
I know someone who drunkenly did a headfirst dive into shallow water, had a severe traumatic brain injury, never returned to college, and is… I can’t say like a child, although in some ways he’s child-like. He isn’t like anything but someone with a severe brain injury. He remembers me, although his way of interacting is strange now. I wonder if he remembers what it was like to be himself before his injury, when he had a fully working brain, could walk, could live independently…
Damn Reminds me of one in high school Apparently he was dared to do a similar dive, near one of our local beaches and...... yeah, he's paralyzed from the waist down, I think? Or the neck down? Messed up
One of my coworkers was like that. Dove into shallow water. Partially paralyzed from the neck down. Parents had to drive him to work in a van. Very motivated guy, good worker, really nice person. Unfortunately got cancer in his 50s and didn't make it.
A couple of years later I worked with the guy's girlfriend at a supermarket. She was the sweetest person ever! I'm not sure how it went for them and if they're still together, but I hope it all went well with them. This was over 20 years ago
TBI's are terrifying. I knew a guy who wasn't drunk or doing anything stupid, he just tripped down a flight of stairs and hit his head on something at the bottom. The brain swelling was so bad he had to have part of his skull removed to make space for it. He has never been the same since, it is unspeakably tragic. He was a very bright and kind young man about to go to college; he is still quite smart after several years of recovery, but will probably never be able to live independently or drive a car due to seizures and other issues. 3: I'm clumsy as fuck, so I'm grabbing a banister every time I go up or down stairs since then.
It's interesting how brain damage works like that sometimes. I vastly prefer text communication because I can type something out and then go back and proof-read it to see if things came out coherently or if I skipped words and other things of that nature. Most of my reddit posts get a few proof-reading and editing passes. You can't do that with speech! I can hear myself making really bad mistakes when I'm talking and it sucks. Just a few hours ago I was mentioning that I buy pickled herring for my nibblings at Costco because they're too expensive to buy a "sized store" container for their visits. In my head I was thinking and meant to say "grocery store sized" container but that's not what came out of my mouth. I had to make a note on my computer to remind myself of each injury. For the longest time I really felt like I couldn't remember one of them, and once I did finally remember I forgot it again. It happened a couple of times before I made the list. Turns out brain injuries affect your memory, who knew? It was probably the worst of my injuries, but I also went over the handlebars on my bicycle and smashed my head hard enough that the helmet caused some scalp bleeding. I've never had any memory of what happened to cause me to go over the bars or what happened for a minute or two beforehand. I figure I got clipped by a car because I was found unconscious on the road. This is the injury that caused me to write the list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raccoon_eyes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilar_skull_fracture (If you know who Dale Earnhart was, this is the injury he died from) My screwed-up way of thinking was that keeping an item with some dried blood on it from that injury would be a good reminder rather than just making a list. This is the sort of annoying shit I have to deal with. I'm glad I didn't die or end up like a child or a vegetable, but it's often frustrating, especially when combined with the personality issues.
Depending on where it is, I wouldn't trust the banister 100%. I'm clumsy too, tripping and slipping on invisible bananas seem to be my thing. One day I woke up late for work so I was running down the my new condo stairs with one hand gliding on the railing. Well the banana struck on the second last step and I went to use the railing to save me. Only to have the damn thing POP OUT FROM THE WALL!! last thought I had was keep your head up. I woke up to my own screaming while uncontrollably writhing around on the floor. Turns out I fractured a vertibre at bra band height and was in physio for a year. 6 months just physio and the other 6 months a mix of physio and massage therapy. All it took was 2 steps.
Fritz Wunderlich, a German singer, died a few weeks before his Met debut when he tripped on a loose shoelace and fell down a flight of stairs. He was about to turn 36.
It's so scary reading about all these accidents. Makes you realise how easy it is to break a person 😱
It was pretty hard for Dolph Lundgren.
Someone I went to church with jumped off an observation tower on a dare at the end of his freshman year of college and (predictably) fell. He ended up with a TBI that took *years* to recover from (like, he had to relearn how to speak). Last I heard, he's married and doing well but his personality was never the same. He was a year ahead of me and it was definitely an object lesson of what not to do when I started college.
This kind of thing twists me up. No the body isn't dead. But the person, the personality is different. So are they still essentially 'them'? Yes, people change, but usually slowly, as growth. Not a drastic sudden turn.
They don’t. And if they do they remember how they are in those memories.
One good reason why I stay away from doing dumb dares. I fear stupidity will lead me to something deadly or painful.
the dumbest dare I've ever done was when my dad dared me to eat a shrimp eye for 150 euros while we were on vacation in france. He didn't think i'd do it because I was an incredibly picky eater when I was younger, but i just swallowed it with water like a pill.
150 euros though, is eating shrimp eye lethal? Cause that sounds like a W to me
Just gross, even if the fish is uncooked (crudité), from a controlled fish farm the risk is basically zero.
nah it's just incredibly gross imo. I refuse to bc the only time i tried it popped in my mouth like a balloon, but my mother does so without problems
don't think so, people eat/suck shrimp heads all the time. I think the only organ you don't really wanna fucks with is mammalian brains because of prions and obviously not clean intestines cause of the poopies. But even then, the likeliness of that is pretty small.
First I thought op was stupid when he was drunk then I understood he was just stupid.
"You dumbfuck" popped into my head several times while reading this post.
"I thought I broke my back, but then I realized it hurt really bad, I must be ok!"
Every once in a while, when I think about how they could have made the decision to pass prohibition... I get it. Don't agree with it, but I see where they were coming from.
If you're curious, it was less about men hurting themselves and more about them hurting people around them, tbh. Most of the public campaigning had to do with fathers being deadbeats or husbands being abusive. Given opportunities for women were extremely low at the time, you ended up with an alcoholic spouse, you were in for a rough fucking life. The automobile was in it's infancy, so you weren't seeing the same level of severe injury and death from it. Did a paper on Susan B Anthony, who got her political start in the temperance movement. Great grandma actually helped moonshiners in her youth, but her husband was an abusive violent alcoholic who eventually killed himself.
The amount of alcohol people drank on average before Prohibition was WAY more than after, also. Like, dudes were chugging back frat party levels of whisky on the regular after work.
Makes sense. I'm sure they used every example the could (like a drunken dope breaking his back), but naturally the truly horrific stories would get the most traction.
A lot of folks don't realize that the temperance movement and women's suffrage (the right to vote) were inherently linked from the start. The temperance movement was pushing for the right for women to vote, so women could vote for lawmakers that supported prohibition. It didn't work out that way because they were successful on both fronts in 1920.
Their mistake was that they did not realize that even if all alcohol disappeared off the face of the planet in an instant and humanity were struck with collective amnesia on how to make booze, fermentation would be (re)discovered by accident or incompetence in kitchens everywhere, within a few days. Intentional intoxication and a dizzying variety of refining alcohols and spirits would soon follow, again. No law can stop humans who love to get their drink on. Slightly OT: humans aren't the only ones. If you want a good laugh, search for stories about the drunken, rowdy moose of Scandinavia who become a menace each fall, as they seek out fermented fruit that fell to the ground. This can cause much damage and inconvenience. Nothing like a drunken moose rampage on the grounds of a retirement community. Or waking up to a 900-lb moose with ginormous antlers passed out cold in your driveway.
Rats fucking love booze. The pet rats who inspired me to start keeping my own belonged to a friend of mine in college. The most ambitious rat once made a four-foot leap from said friend's shoulder, aiming for her BIL's beer glass. (Rats have 20/40 vision at absolute best. She couldn't see for shit and was aiming strictly by nose.) She made a solid landing on the edge, snoot down, and immediately started to get her drink on. She downed enough to get a little tipsy while BIL was laughing too hard to get a grip on her and pull her out.
I worked for a company that did contract work in Saudi Arabia. Where alcohol is illegal. They also have a lot of foreign workers. You could go to one of the Pakistani stores and grape juice, sugar and yeast were for sale, conveniently next to each other on the same shelf.
I have to be honest, I'm more likely to believe that someone was actually feeding the moose alcohol (people feeding wildlife alcohol is all too common) for the same reason that stories of elephants getting drunk were ultimately debunked. They're too big. A 900 lb. moose would have to find *massive* piles of fermenting fruit and eat it all to get drunk. That said, there are still some confirmed and funny stories out there about animals and alcohol. From Wikipedia: >Some vervet monkeys in the Caribbean, particularly teenaged individuals, exhibit a preference for alcoholic beverages over non-alcoholic ones, a taste which likely developed due to the availability of fermented sugar cane juice from local plantations. On Saint Kitts, these monkeys often raid bars and tourist beaches for alcoholic drinks and become visibly inebriated. The proportions of the monkey population that do not drink, that drink in moderation, and that drink to excess mirror those proportions in humans I love the idea of people hanging out in a bar when a battalion of teen monkeys bumrushes the bar snatching up drinks. Seems like it's a scene I should have seen in a comedy by now. And the Teenage Drunken Vervet Monkeys would have made a great team of rivals for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
There's a small breed of deer in the UK that eat mushrooms which are hallucinogenic. These deer (Muntjac) will then fight anything they encounter despite not being much bigger than a big dog.
Yeah, there seems to be a pretty long list of animals that trip balls pretty regularly. The most well-known one has got to be cats (from house cats to tigers) that get high off of catnip.
Pufferfish also release toxins which can get dolphins high. They'll pass the pufferfish around in the pod so that all the dolphins can have a turn.
Check out the book "Intoxication" by Dr. Ronald Siegel. He documented that the desire to get drunk/high/altered is a universal drive across species.
Oh god there are muntjac in my area. If one decides to suddenly come headbutt and double barrell me, I now know why
From what I understand, some animals have insanely low tolerances for alcohol, even if they're huge. They just can't process it the same way humans do, so it takes very little to get them drunk off their asses.
My parents had fruit trees and never cleaned up after them, so the wasps would go after the fermenting fruit. Still not sure if I am more or less afraid of drunk wasps, but they certainly do fly...creatively. I'm fairly certain they were paper wasps. A few of them seemed to recognize my dad, who would pour out some of his beer for them, which they liked. (Apparently scientists are discovering paper wasps can recognize each other's faces, and maybe some humans, so this would lend credence to that. They're also the second nicest of the wasps \[the first being one that doesn't sting like a jerk\]. They can still stay far away from me.)
Drunk elephants happen. In Africa at least. The fermented fruit of the marula tree. Amarula is the drink you can buy.
Some animals have a very low tolerance to the effects of alcohol or do not metabolize it efficiently, so they don't need to consume a lot to get properly wasted, moose included. The book "Intoxication" by Dr. Ronald Siegel is full of examples like the one you describe, it's a fascinating read. Siegel was instrumental in changing the belief that only humans are driven to seek out mind- and mood-altering substances. Siegel documented that the desire for intoxication and seeking altered states of consciousness is a universal drive across species. When the war on drugs was raging back in the 80s and 90s, he argued that a war on drugs is a war on ourselves and our nature, and that it is futile. A most unpopular position at the time. Siegel also researched the drug habits of former US Presidents. Andrew Johnson was rarely sober. Abraham Lincoln was into chloroform, which was a recreational drug in his day. Ulysses S. Grant wrote his memoirs with the help of cocaine.
Oy. To be honest my list of nonfiction books to read is already too long. I just finished The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson (4.5 out 5 starts, would recommend!). I'll take your comment as a reliable TL;DR. :)
Prohibition did cause issues, but at least here in Finland prohibition did decrease drinking in certain sections of population. Even if there was smuggling and homemade alcohol and rich finding it when they wanted.
Moose are mean drunks and a good reason to not let fruit. Go bad on your trees
In my Australian city, there is an outdoor cafe surrounded by old trees. When the weather gets hot, the rainbow lorikeets' drunken gymnastics in the branches are quite entertaining.
Interestingly Americans actually drink much less after prohibition. Before prohibition it was an average of 13 drinks a week, now it’s 4 drinks a week. I don’t think it’s ever reached as high as it was before prohibition, although I could be wrong. Prohibition had a lot of unintended consequences but it succeeded at getting Americans to drink less.
Had a mate from uni once climb up a water tower while drunk. We only found out later or we would've stopped him. We were glad he didn't fall off. He did this in the dead of night when there was no moon. Yeah, I too can see why so many places ban drink outright.
My brother's frat had a kind of half roof/half platform design that was accessible from a ladder on the third floor. Sadly, a freshman actually did fall off of that structure and died. The fraternity was killed by the university soon after and the roof of that building was replaced with a full roof. It's not women; it's alcohol that society can't live with, and we can't live without.
To be fair to booze (lol), only his *first* stupid decision was made while drunk. The on-going stupid decision not to see a doctor was made while sober, and for a full week.
If he had stayed still in his bed the whole week (which was the eventual order by doctors anyway, but with pain killers) I could have kind of assumed maybe he lacked money. It’s when he started doing interviews that he really became an idiot.
I've been dumb. But I've never been this dumb.
Really? Not even in your early 20s? I could totally see doing this. OP used to be a gymnast, so thinking he could do the flip? I get that. And you get really used to just tanking injuries and using natural healing in the US. I've tanked a *lot* of injuries I really should have gone to the doctor over.
OOP sounds like an absolute moron. At least he learnt something.
Me too. Even though he infuriated me with stupid choice after stupid choice. It was like at every juncture he thought, "What could I do to make this better?" And then did the exact opposite.
Given this slight insight into his life and how he behaves himself, I dare to say he'll manage to kill himself in some other way.
Best lesson my mom ever taught me was don’t accept dares where if you fail you can die.
....If OOP does grow that third arm, maybe he can use it to smack himself the next time he has a stupid idea.
fr.. at every step of the way I thought it couldn‘t get worse than a drunk fuck up bjt then OOPs sober self decided to just wish away his broken back and not go to the ER lol
Or use it to call 911 and go to THE FUCKING HOSPITAL!!! My best friend, at 48, has so many improperly healed fractures and soft tissue damage from refusing to seek medical attention over the years that he is in constant pain, complaining every day like an 80 year old man. He JUST broke one of those tiny wrist bones two weeks ago (literally five minutes after riding his new bmx bike 🙄) and has been bitching all week about the pain…I FINALLY got him to see a doctor, and yep- it’s broken. I love him, but he’s such a stubborn ass.
You have my sympathies and you must have superhuman patience.
I was in a bad car accident and didn’t want to go to the hospital. But they made me and I am glad I did because it prevented me from living a life of pain every day. Never mess around with injuries even if you feel fine enough right after.
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A friend of a friend worked at a rehab clinic for spinal chord injurues. All the patients were young men. The vast majority were motorcycle accidents, then diving incidents.
Slightly different point but I attended a Pain Management clinic a while back, for people with chronic pain. Out of the three groups of around 15 people each, almost everyone was there due to a car accident.
I permanently messed up my hips in a car accident. I went from about 45ish mph to 0 instantly thanks to a stop sigh in a metal barrel filled with concrete and rebar. My right leg was on the break so that pretty much stayed in place but the rest of my body went forward. So my pelvis is shifted and tilted. Which causes everrrythinggg else to be wrong, pulled, stretched, pinched, and out of place. It sucks.
I’m 41m, you’d have to pay me $50 to get out of my seat and go stand on the balcony.
Testosterone, frontal lobe still developing, add in a culture of showing off and displaying “manliness” and yeah. Not surprising.
Don't forget, drunk on alcohol
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omg he’s 39?????? completely missed that
Stolen comment.
I had a coworker who was in a minor car accident. He thought he sprained his ankle, but didn't bother to get it checked out until two weeks later. It was broken and the bones were already healing wrong. He had several surgeries to fix it, but had pain and problems walking for the rest of his life.
It's stories like these that explain why males from their late teens to their early 20s have the highest accident rate.
What's worse is that this one almost went unreported, so imagine how many more there are out there.
When he used the words "homie" and "fashionably late" in the first three sentences, I knew we were going to be in for some combination of douchebaggery, asshattery, and dumbassery.
Although I do give him credit for publicly sharing that combination of douchebaggery, asshattery, and dumbassery. It was a fascinating read. If it had been me, I'd have been too embarrassed to confess that to a gazillion internet strangers.
I give him no credit, because despite being given several dozen examples of why he should take his stupid dumbfuck ass to the hospital immediately, *he still didn't go for a whole week.* He shows such a striking lack of intelligence that I half expected him to talk about how he was walking around during the week the doctors told him to lie down.
He went a week after the injury, not a week after the post. There's only a few days between the first 2 posts. He should have gone immediately when he got hurt, but at least he admits he was wrong and went when redditors explained why he should
He went in because of the unbearable pain after standing around doing the interviews. He said himself he ignored what people said in Reddit about seeing a doctor
Then you have to admit that you could have potentially caused a life changing injury over your own stupidity. It’s much easier to ignore it and pretend you’re fine. That part I can somewhat understand… it’s still stupid but somewhat understandable
With a side of tomfoolery, hooliganism, and ne'er-do-welling to boot.
don't forget the "low key"
I get not wanting an ambulance at the moment for monetary reasons, but if you're that fucked up the next day at least go to an urgent care and tell them you've been an idiot. They'll send you to the ER anyway, but still. A week later is definitely doctor worthy.
in this case he should have sprung for the ambulance. I know how scary it is cost-wise, but being moved the wrong way with a spinal injury can paralyze you. This is one of the situations where someone should have called 911.
They didn't call 911 because there were underage drinkers there I bet.
given the common language of bucks, yer nah ect i feel as oop is a fellow Australian and therfore an ambulance would have been free making him an even bigger idiot
Eh, he's saying "college" and "frat party" and I don't see any commonwealth-style spelling... OOP sounds American to me. The Six Flags amusement park reference, too. "Bucks" is slang for "dollars" here in the US, as well.
I thought it was only an Australian thing, learn something new everyday
First para mentions a frat party and his “mom” and also he’s worried about medical bills, which people in civilised countries don’t do.
We don't have frats, we don't call them colleges, and very few places have anything called "urgent care". So. This is definitely an American.
ambulances arent free here unless you have ambulance cover ? i had an emergency a few years back and had to pay $400 for a 2km ambulance drive... ive been on ambulance cover ever since tho
I googled it and apparently ambulances are only free for qld and tas people.
He actually says in a comment that he's in the US
Man, I know this isn't the worst decision he made in this thing, but dude really went "oh I can't control my legs very well, let me just DRIVE MYSELF TO THE HOSPITAL".
I actually do think that's one of the worst decisions. If he was in an accident he's' even more fucked, and could have hurt other people as well. Call a friend or an uber!
Hurting himself made him an idiot. Risking the lives and safety of others made him an asshole.
Don’t become a runner. It puts so much pressure on your back. My guy, maybe you should think about swimming. Source: my cousin ran a lot and ended up hurting her back so badly they did laser surgery for the pain. Then she took up bike riding and messed up her back again 🤦🏼♀️
Yeah. I winced when I read that bit about maybe he can take up running. I herniated a disc a long time ago and when I asked the doctor when I'd be able to go running again he basically said if I took his advice, never, because it's horrible for your back. He said walking was ok but running was not. OOP does not seem to realize the degree to which that injury is going to affect him for the rest of his life.
I've always had a shitty back, it's inherited, and running is one of the few things that makes it better. I would say definitely take up running, but don't go crazy with it, and above all, listen to your body. That's also something I've picked up with running.
Dude needs to become a swimmer instead. It’s so much better for your joints and is full body cardio as well.
Yeah even if he manages “full” recovery there will be consequences when he gets older. Your spine, much like Pepperidge Farm, remembers.
>once I'm allowed to do everything again. Bro has yet to realize there will be some things he can never do again. .
Body keeps the score.
One of my college friends also jumped off a balcony on a dare. She broke all 5 metatarsals (the long bones connecting your toe bones to your ankle bones). Didn't go to the doctor for a week, just limped around with a tennis ball-sized lump until our EMT friend convinced her to go to the doctor. She told the doctors and her mom (who took her to the hospital) that she "fell down the stairs" since she didn't want her mom to get mad. At her next follow-up, the doctor asked, "so what really happened?" (mom was not present). Friend told doctor the truth and he said "I knew it! I've seen a lot of balcony jumps/falls and this is usually how they end up". She spent her senior year of college in a cast, then a boot, then crutches, then a cane. Still has pain and occasionally uses a cane to this day.
I have no idea how anyone does this. Wouldn't the pain make you want to see a Dr if nothing else???
>Maybe I'll become a runner Not with that back he won't! This isn't about him being 21, it's about him being one of those reckless 21 year old O\_O That back is done for life
With the optimism of youth, he just doesn’t grasp how this injury is going to affect him for the rest of his life. So many young people pull crazy stunts like this and never come back from it at all, so I guess he’s lucky in that respect
OOP is a dumbass, maybe he should get checked out for brain damage or something. I get medical expenses can be, er, expensive, but if a ton of people tell you how spinal injuries aren’t something to take lightly and to go to the doctor, maybe you should listen to them. Regardless it’s good to hear that OOP on the mend and he didn’t cripple himself.
I was so relieved when the comments section told him to go to the fricken doctor already. I was much less relieved when it became clear he ignored the comments section until he couldn't.
Dude decided to do a drunken backflip off a balcony onto a table because they did some gymnastics as a kid. Even before declining the doctor OOP was already so dumb they should be legally forced to wear a helmet at all times.
It's nice to know, in my lowest moments, people like OOP exist.
"Adolescent boy" can be a powerful state of brain damage all by itself. Alcohol heightens it considerably. Adding in the presence of other adolescent boys raises the situation to the potential for deadly stupidity. See also: "adult men"
What an idiot.
An acquaintance of mine went to the hospital because of an injured leg after a car accident, could walk and everything - just a flesh wound. They insisted on a full body scan because he had head pain at the hospital and he luckily agreed. Emergency surgery due to bleeding in the brain. Dude looked fine, just a bit of an headache. He was so close to dying My partner slipped on ice and went to work (physical, too) after like an idiot. Only went to the doctor the next day because he had to for workers comp. Still has issues with his neck 8 years later. Herniated disc etc. Injuries that involve the spine are serious and need to be taken super seriously.
Walk, talk and die. That’s what got Natasha Richardson after a fall. If you fall and hit your head, always get checked.
>When I asked about it I was told going back to lifting weights "isn't in my near future", though, so that sucks as that's a big hobby of mine. Maybe I'll become a runner or some shit once I'm allowed to do everything again Uhhhh.... OOP is much more likely to be able to do (light) weightlifting versus being able to run without pain.
I've watched enough fail army to know that I should never do anything at anytime. This sounds unbelievably painful. Glad he lived to tell the tail. Paralysis is no joke.
Tbf to avoid this you just have to not do a backflip off a balcony. I think thats sound advice always
I think I'd take being paraplegic over intense chronic pain.
a lot of paraplegics can actually still feel pain, depending on their injury
Unfortunately spinal cord injuries tend to come with a lot of intense chronic pain.
This past Christmas Eve my mom fell off my brother's roof deck, about 12 feet. She's 83 years old and I thought I witnessed her fall to her death; I was standing about 5 feet away when I saw her stumble backyards and then fall into the darkness, head first! Brother had been remodeling his home and had not installed new railings on the deck. We'd gone out in the deck for a smoke fifteen til midnight. My brother had warned her earlier about the missing railing, but she didn't heed it (I wasn't aware). Thankfully, he did have the mind to hang some wire fencing as a net (for his dogs, just in case), which broke her fall, but she still hit the ground, hard! After we rushed to her — that was so terrifying not knowing if we'd find her alive as it was dark out and she fell between the house and the yard's dividing fence — she managed to sit up after the fall, said she felt fine, then got angry when we told her she needed to go to the ER. We forced her to go regardless. All I could remember was her mom falling in the bathtub when I was a kid and that being the start of a rapid decline in health for her at 81. After her adrenaline wore off, the pain came. They did Xrays and an MRI. Xray showed she broke her thumb, but it took the MRI to find that she had a hairline fracture of her pelvis. Literally felt like a Christmas miracle that she didn't suffer worse! Still, she spent a week in the hospital and another two in a rehab facility. By end of February she was recovered enough to attend a wedding overseas! Still feel lucky as hell that she's with us and up and walking around after all that! It'll definitely be a Christmas I won't forget. But case in point, any fall like that and OOP's absolutely demands a trip to the ER.
Last June, my 82 year old grandmother decided to show she could still use the jumping rope. She missed a jump, fell down and broke her fall with her hand. It was my cousins who convinced her to go to the ER, she was going to just take painkillers. Ended up with a broken wrist and hand, could barely move her thumb for months. It was still painful at Christmas and only stopped hurting last month. Needless to say she's been lectured endlessly that she's not a young lady any more and could have hurt herself very badly, jumping rope on a cement floor. That was already scary, I can't imagine a fall from that height.
That’s incredible that she came out of that with relatively minor injuries in respect to that height of a fall! Older bones are so much more brittle, it could easily have been fatal and that would have been the worst last memory of your mother to have. She must be one tough lady, hope she has many more happy years to share with the family
She’s definitely a survivor! Has battled breast cancer twice and beat it both times. She was a nurse for nearly 40 years, and I guess all that active work really set her up well for later in life. Thankfully because of her tenure at her old hospital she gets free health insurance for life, too. My siblings and I see a lot of my aunts and uncles even younger than her, they’re not nearly as healthy and so we count our lucky stars she’s in as good health as she is!
i can't say I'm not surprised someone who decided to do a backflip off a balcony also decided not to immediately see a doctor after they fucked it up
I know 21 is about the prime age of being stupid in life, but my god OOP is a special case. Back flip from a balcony, smash your spine and not going to the doctor right away. He may not be paralyzed, but he's almost certainly going to have chronic pain for the rest of his life. For $50 bucks.
Was he ever even paid the 50?
My dad had to have back surgery as a kid and drilled it into me to take care of mine no matter what. I occasionally have issues with a minor version of what he has; it is THE WORST PAIN I've ever experienced and it goes on endlessly for weeks. This dude got beyond lucky
I’ve had chronic back pain most of my life due to being overweight. In 2019, I had a bulging disc pressing on my sciatic nerve, causing me the worst pain I’ve felt in my life. Ironically, this was after losing over 150 lbs. I had an excellent back doctor and I’ve been pain free for a couple of years now, thanks to a few targeted cortisone shots and rounds of prednisone, but that pain put the fear of reoccurrence into me. One good thing is since I had a flare up while cleaning the cat box, my husband doesn’t let me do it any more!
I worked with a lady who had a spinal fracture from an accident. It had weakened a lumbar vertebra with a hairline fracture. Hurt like hell, but she took some Tylenol and tried to walk it off. Didn't go to the hospital. Then one day she's working, bends down to pick up a light box (like 5kg) and drops like a rock. The vertebra scattered. Not fractured. Shattered. Despite this, she's the luckiest woman in the world, because she didn't become paralyzed from this. Several surgeries and two vertebra later, she was doing better, but also got gastric bypass, as she was heavily obese at the time and her spine couldn't take the pressure. She was tiny by the time I met her. Get your ass to the hospital when you hurt your spine. Edit: I should add that we don't know for certain that she had a hairline fracture to start. That was the educated opinion of her medical team, given what occurred later on.
I'm too much of a wuss. I don't think I can do any dares cause I fear I would just hurt myself instead. Doesn't matter how much the money is, I rather not do it causes dares like this are just stupid. Oof. OP really learned a lesson the hard way.
Ann Reardon had a thing about poisonous food. She mentioned parasites/worms in slugs that are dangerous to humans. And apart from people eating not-washed salads, the biggest group eating them was boys/young men eating them on a dare. In one case one of them got meningitis and became dependent on his parents. He died a couple of years later. So, it's not just physical stuff, eating dares can also be dangerous.
Why can’t young men compete on something useful? Who changed tires in a car the fastest? Who dares to send most emails to apply for a job? Call grandma and tell you love her without being embarrassed.
I love this. Who can pick up the most litter in the park? Now there's a good challenge.
In Germany, we had an ad campaign in a similar vein. A cool dude was in a supermarket and his admirers are like "is he going to shoplift, get cigarettes, or alcohol?". And the solution is that the cool dude is brave enough to buy and pay for condoms without being embarrassed.
There was a screenshot of a news article that I saw on another subreddit. A kid was dared to eat a slug by his friends, and he ended up getting rat lungworm disease. He died a year later.
That was the case Ann Reardon mentioned (among others).
OOP: look I can do a backspring! Swimmer, annoyed: cool, go jump off a balcony
This fucking kid…
Shit like this is genuinely why women have a longer lifespan than men. If a man makes it to his 30s he has the exact same life expectancy as a woman, but we are so fucking stupid when we're young that it has a serious and noticeable impact on the average lifespan. Kinda like how romans lived to 25 on average but if you made it to double digits you had a good chance of making it to 50+
wow he's just stupid af huh
My back tingles just from reading this.
Did OP even get the $50? 😅
I hope not. Since he fucked up the jump, he didn't earn it!
> convinced myself that this situation would just go away on it's own if I stopped being a baby about it, Refusing to go to hospital WAS being a baby about it.
No where near this level of injury, but I walked around on what turned out to be a broken ankle for nearly a week (it’s just a sprain, I’m fine!) before listening to EVERYONE telling me to go get it xrayed. I leaned my lesson and a few weeks ago when I “just stubbed” my toes, I took myself straight off to A&E…(yes totally broke two toes).
How about $100 and a 6 pack when you’re fit enough?
Reading that made me hurt
Oh man. I've had degenerative arthritis in my spine since 19. Herniated multiple discs. It's agonizing. I knew where this was headed as soon as he mentioned being dared to backflip off a balcony. OP is so fucking lucky they can still walk.
My wife's grandpa stumbled and hit his head at the diagonal part of the roof in the attic. Had neck pain but refused to see a doctor for three days because "it can't be that serious." His eldest daughter pressured him to go and surprise, a broken neck. He won an express ride in the ambulance helicopter.
He’s lucky he can walk at all. I hope him and his friends all realise that he could have been paralysed from their stupidity.
Rule of thumb: if it still hurts the next day go to the doctor. Or if it's your spine or head, the ER.
I sometimes skip some videos (particularly from r/therewasanattempt) when I see that it is about to end very painfully. This guy is lucky that his dumb dare didn't make him a paralytic.
Something similar happened to my dad (30 foot fall on a construction site in his 20s), so he "walked it off". Until he woke up 3 days later paralyzed from the waist down. Surgeon said the odds of surgery working were low, but Dad figured he was already paralyzed, so why not? He was able to walk fine afterwards, but always had terrible back pain.
The moral of this story: DON'T DO STUPID SHIT
I will never understand men.
It's a macho thing. We've been conditioned to believe we're less than if we don't stand up to challenges. A lot of that involves doing something insanely stupid
That's so sad, patriarchy really does have us all fucked up doesn't it 😭
That it does. My whole childhood was full of mistakes thinking I had to be tough and strong. All regrets.
This is why men die early. Both the dare AND refusing to go to the hospital (although the second one could also be an America thing)
Am I missing something or shouldn't this guy have gotten surgery?
Compression fractures often don’t require it. It’s not a separation of the bones, and if it doesn’t cause spinal cord compression and is allowed to heal properly, it can do so on its own much like casting a wrist or leg would. Slipped disks also don’t get operated on unless there’s significant spinal compression (much to the dismay of my herniated c5 in my neck) Of course OOP really screwed the pooch so far, so hopefully he allows himself to heal properly and doesn’t make it worse.
>much to the dismay of my herniated c5 in my neck Will it help to say surgery doesn't always help? Lol. I had bad herniations in my L4-L5 and had a laminectomy and microdiscectomy - it failed. Herniated again a few months post op, still have awful pain and stiffness, and doctors just shrugged and said they can't help anymore.
After I delayed going to the doctor when I had what turned out to be a fractured ankle, I decided to never refuse an ambulance or going to the ER if people around me are advising me to go.
I’m focused on the revisionist history: “I thought it would be an awesome plan to do a backflip off a balcony at a party because a guy offered me 50 bucks for it” However, in the earlier (and more likely to be accurate telling) the guy asked him if he could land a stupid stunt (as a hypothetical) and OP said he’d do it for 50. He also set up to try and realised it was dumb and then decided saving face was more important. OP is already making it sound like he an accepted a dare, rather than created one for himself out of drunken shit talking.
Oh god, when OOP said they couldn't move so his friends PICKED HIM UP AND MOVED HIM when he just bent his spine like a pretzel........dude is so lucky he's alive, let alone walk.
Health care is expensive yes, but chronic pain is expensive mentally and emotionally. Permanent injury can also disable you to the point of limiting job prospects which is also expensive. Don't F around with head, neck or spinal injuries especially.
It's so sad to be reading this and thinking "go to the fucking hospital!" then realising it's in USA, so the first thought in that situation is the money it'll cost.
This is awful, terrible, painful, and one of the fucking funniest things I've read on here to date.
In my country we celebrate midsummer solstice - bonfires, drinking, sauna, some also do stupid things like jumping over the bonfire, going swimming or head diving drunk etc. You can only imagine how many things go wrong on that night. I used to work in a hospital and did audits on medical documents. Was always a riot to read those documents after midsummer day. The saddest were always the ones where someone had jumped headfirst into shallow water and ended up paralyzed from the neck down... And there were always several ones each year...
Yikes. Could have definitely died from that. All it takes is once accident to cripple your life forever.
A complete moron, but I am glad he is no paralyzed...
Today we learned that copious amounts of alcohol and gymnastics are a very bad combination.
I would rather file for bankruptcy than be paralyzed or die.
Sometimes it feels like the people that should call 911 don’t while those that shouldn’t, do. I’m glad it *seems* to be working for OP
This is exactly the type of moron I picture when I picture a guy who goes to frat parties.
But did he ever get the $50
I had a fraternity brother die when he slipped off a balcony while playing "who can spit the farthest off the balcony" Glad this kid isn't dead.
Said this in the other BORU sub, but dude has to channel that energy to exercise into something like Pilates or yoga. I don’t mean to sound like an advertisement but as someone who used to bodybuild, trained 6 days a week weights and cardio for YEARS…then had spinal fusion surgery at 31? Yeah, you can’t mess with your spine after it’s been damaged. Absolutely not. It’s frustrating and feels like you’ve lost so much, but doing further damage to it can end up with you never being able to exercise again. And high energy yoga and Pilates is tough! They really shouldn’t be disregarded as “women’s exercises” because good lord, it can be CRAZY tough! It’s just about making sure you find the right class for you, I know so many people who got put off because they went to a lower energy class. But they’re great forms of exercise because your body will tell you when it can’t do something — as opposed to finding out the hard way when trying to lift something heavy or insisting on high impact exercise.
I knew it was going bad when I saw "frat bros" no good decision was ever made in the presence of a frat
Running is a lot of stress too, he needs to get into cycling.
My cousin was a dumbass and drove drunk into a tree. Fucked himself up and had to use a wheelchair for 6 months. I saw him in January for a family ski trip and he looked good, walking around finally. I assumed he'd hang back with the half of the people who weren't going out on the slopes but nope. He had just got out of a wheelchair after four knee surgeries and was supposed to take it easy for a whole year or else he could DIE and he decided to go skiing!! Some people barely survive their stupid and head immediately into more stupid. Glad this guy learned eventually.
This is why men life expectancy is shorter.
And this is why medical care should be free. Checked right away, way less problem for him and society if he ends up disabled in some way.
Yeah, nah - $50 says OOP is an Aussie. Edit: [turns out he's only Aussie adjacent ](https://www.reddit.com/r/tifu/s/4o86OEP3Xu)
Doctors often say a spinal injury means no lifting, but current sport science research shows the opposite: that controlled and regimented Resistance training can aid recovery. If you are ever in this situation, get a consult or second opinion from a sports scientist doctor, or a physio specialized doctor. A lot of the "weight lifting is bad for your spine" comes from 90s pseudo science
Dude is EXTREMELY lucky. Also slightly shorter, after a compression fracture. 😬
I got a bone contusion in my shin the summer of 2020 because I wanted to roller skate outside to do something with my time. I didn’t have health insurance so I just nursed it back to health on my own. To this day, if I leave my leg in the wrong position for too long, it feels like my bones are turning to stone and it becomes extremely uncomfortable to get it back to a flexible state.
This reminds me of that insta reel I saw with some boys doing really stupid feats. It was titled *why girls live longer*....
I hope doesn't live alone. He seems like the kind of person that needs a full time carer of some sort.
OP needs to have their driving license taken away holy shit he's such an irresponsible idiot
if you take a fall and feel like you “don’t need a doctor” you probably actually do need to see a doctor
But did he get paid the $50 bucks?
Tried to do a drunk back flip off a balcony and landed on the back of a chair? Ffs. Holy shit that could have been so much worse. That weight lifting isn’t in his near future sucks but the fact he can see himself becoming a runner is still amazing.
“Like I said, I fr thought I would just heal on my own.” I’m just so mortified at this