Skylar Fish

RENTON, WASH. — A teenage boy in Washington State received life-threatening injuries trying to pull off something he saw on YouTube.

Skylar Fish has had a lot of time to think.

A nurse removes 48 staples from his head, and though he’s in some pain, he’s not complaining.

“I’m just actually really lucky to be even alive,” he said.

Pictures show how seriously the 14-year-old was injured doing what’s known as the Duct Tape Challenge. A quick search on YouTube, and several videos pop up. The goal is to break free from the duct tape.

“When I think about it, it seems like I was hit by a car,” Fish said.

He doesn’t remember much from that day. He and two buddies had gone to Renton Academy on a Saturday. His friends duct taped his arms and legs.

“When he fell, he hit the corner of the window frame,” said Sarah Fish, Skylar’s mother. “It crushed his whole eye socket. When his eye socket was crushed, it pinched off nerves in his eye.”

Skylar doesn’t know if he’ll ever get his vision back in that eye.

His head was also slammed into the concrete, causing a brain aneurysm.

“It was really scary, like just seeing my son like this,” Sarah said.

She wants to warn others about the duct tape challenge.

“I want people to stop and think that there are so many risks to any of these challenges,” she said. “They’re dangerous.”

As Skylar prepares to head off to Seattle Children’s Hospital for the rest of his recovery, he said he wants something good to come out of this.

“Teach other kids not to do it,” he said. “When I think about it, like I become sad. And then like really happy. Because like I’m happy because like I survived it. Like, I almost died.”

Source: WTHR