14-Year-Old Attempts Popular 'Duct-Tape Challenge' — and Nearly Loses His Life

A 14-year-old and his mother are warning other people about the dangers of participating in the viral "Duct-Tape Challenge" after the teen seriously injured himself while undertaking the challenge Jan. 16.

Skylar Fish of Renton, Washington, attempted to reenact the challenge he had seen online with some friends and allowed himself to be bound with duct tape around his arms and legs, according to KCPQ-TV. The point of the challenge is to show off how quickly a person wrapped tightly in duct tape can free himself. A quick YouTube search brings up scores of videos.

Skylar said that he and his friends had seen videos before of participants duct-taping each other to a pole. The Washington teens, however, decided to try the challenge with Skylar standing up on his own, according to KIRO-TV. But after he had been bound while standing up, Skylar lost his balance and struck his head upon metal and concrete window frame that shattered his eye socket, crushed his cheekbone, and brought on a brain aneurysm.

"When he fell, he hit the corner of the window frame," Skylar's mother, Sarah Fish, told KIRO. "It crushed his whole eye socket and pinched off nerves in his eye.”

The bleeding on Skylar's brain required immediate surgery, and although the teen is recovering, it still remains unclear whether or not he will ever regain his eyesight.

"I don’t know what I would do if I lost him. They told me over and over that ... he’s lucky to be alive," Fish told KCPQ Monday.

Both Skylar and his mother hope that the teen's tragic accident will turn off other curious teenagers from attempting the challenge themselves.

"They’re just looking at what’s fun, what’s cool, what's going to impress their friends. 'I can break out of this duct-tape. I'm the strongest. I’m the best.' They’re not thinking what if I fall and hit my head," Fish said.

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