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A man falls from a milk crate pyramid in California
Photo: APU GOMES / AFP
The setting is pretty similar every time: dozens of plastic milk crates are used to build a pyramid that can be three meters high.
Then a person tries to climb the rickety construction on one side - and come down safely on the other.
In many cases, the crate pyramid collapses, as expected, and the person lands on the floor, sometimes more, sometimes less.
Mostly less.
Numerous videos of such campaigns are currently uploaded to TikTok and other social platforms and tagged with the hashtag #MilkCrateChallenge, which translates as milk crate challenge.
What sometimes causes a lot of laughter and the urge to imitate among users of the platforms is now alarming doctors.
"It may be worse than falling off a ladder," said Shawn Anthony of the Washington Post, who works as a trauma surgeon in a New York hospital and specializes in sports injuries.
The people he saw in the videos "put their joints at an even higher risk of injury," said Anthony.
He also pointed out that hospitals are currently at their limit anyway because of the corona pandemic.
Everyone needs to help support first responders and health care providers, Anthony said.
And that also includes not taking part in actions "that put additional strain on the health system."
Colleagues have reported numerous injuries dating back to the Milk Crate Challenge, including: dislocated shoulders, torn cruciate ligament and meniscus, broken wrists, and even spinal cord injuries.
The newspaper also spoke to Henry Schuitema, who heads the emergency department at a New Jersey hospital.
Among other things, he reported on patients with broken ribs.
And blamed TikTok and other social networks for promoting dangerous trends like the Milk Crate Challenge.
"It looks like something funny, but real people get real injuries," Schuitema said.
So many of these injuries can be avoided "just by being intelligent."
TikTok itself stated in a message to the newspaper that it bans content that promotes or glorifies dangerous actions.
In fact, the milk crate promotion is just the latest example of dangerous trends on the Chinese platform.
In the past few months, for example, the so-called blackout challenge went viral, in which users held their breath until they passed out.
About a year ago young people ran up to cows dancing wildly for the Kulikitaka Challenge and uploaded videos of them.
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