An 8-year-old Michigan girl was hospitalized after she tried to do a magic trick she saw on TikTok. Worried over such viral tricks and challenges gaining traction among children and young adults, the girl's father asked all parents to remain vigilant.
Dhakota, a resident of Macomb County's Roseville, attempted to do the trick that involved hiding a dice in the mouth and making it reappear. When she did not find a dice, she used a quarter that ended up getting stuck in her throat. The child tried to imitate the trick in the bathroom, but when she took a longer time than usual, her parents went to check on her.
"She said she couldn't swallow," Dhakota's father told ClickOnDetroit.com. "She couldn't breathe hardly and that's when me and her mother started to panic." Concerned over their daughter's health, Dhakota's parents rushed her to two different hospitals before a doctor could check up on her.
"They immediately took her back," he reportedly said. "I didn't know how bad the situation was until they brought the x-ray back and I saw the quarter right there in her esophagus. It killed me, man."
The x-ray showed the quarter was stuck sideways in Dhakota's throat prompting the doctors to suggest an emergency procedure. The child had to remain at the hospital overnight.
"This could happen to any child. Everybody in the city, anybody in the world, they should delete that off their kid's phone or their tablet because it's dangerous, man. I could've lost my kid," her father said.
The trick was first made by a TikTok user named Greg Sabbak. In the video, he pretended to swallow the dice and a few seconds later making it reappear. Such tricks and challenges on social media platforms have led to a series of accidents. Here's one such video on YouTube:
In September, healthcare experts issued a warning over "Benadryl Challenge" that went viral on TikTok. The so-called challenge dared users to consume large doses of the antihistamine achieve a hallucinatory effect. The viral challenge was also a cause of death of a 15-year-old girl who died due to overdose.
