Boy forced into 'roundabout of death' playground stunt left with serious head injuries
Mother of 11-year-old says her child ‘looked like the elephant man’, after incident ‘inspired by popular YouTube video’
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Your support makes all the difference.An 11-year-old boy has been left with possible brain damage and bulging eyes after he was forced to recreate a stunt seen on internet videos known as “the roundabout of death”.
Tyler Broome was found unconscious near a playground roundabout in Tuxford, Nottinghamshire, after he was told by a group of youths to sit in the middle of a roundabout as it was spun at high speed using the rear wheel of a motorcycle.
The G-force created by the extreme speed at which a motorbike wheel can turn a roundabout is normally only experienced by fighter pilots and astronauts in controlled environments.
It is thought the high G-force Tyler experienced forced fluid and blood into his skull, causing damage to his vision and giving him bulging eyes.
In footage, Tyler appears to have lost consciousness while the roundabout spins, but the teenagers initially appear not to have realised, and continue to rev the engine.
As the roundabout slows down, it is clear the child is unconscious.
“Oh my god, has he passed out?” a girl can be heard saying.
Tyler was at a local park with his friend when the pair were approached by a group of older teenagers – one with a motorcycle, according to his mother Dawn Hollingworth.
Ms Hollingworth said the group tried to recreate the YouTube stunt on Wednesday.
She said: “I don’t recognise my child – he is on the verge of having a stroke.
“Tyler sat on the roundabout, and the boy who came over was about 17. Tyler doesn’t know him, they are not friends.
“He puts his motorbike on the floor, gets the roundabout spinning at such a speed.
“When they all stopped, the group just cleared off – it is bullying.”
Tyler was immediately rushed to the Queen’s Medical Centre, in Nottingham, for treatment for severe injuries.
Ms Hollingworth said her son’s injuries were so unusual that hospital staff had never witnessed them before and had to research the symptoms before they could treat him.
She added: “The injuries were so extreme he just looked like the elephant man. They have never seen it before, they are going to make a medical report from it.
“His head has completely swelled up, his blood vessels have burst, his eyes look alien. His vision is blurry. You can manage a broken arm but this? He doesn’t remember it, he doesn’t remember the detail.”
Ms Hollingworth said she believed the inspiration for the prank came from a YouTube video called “the roundabout of death” which has had over seven million views.
She wrote on Facebook: “A decent young lad who I only know as Liam who lives in Tuxford who entered the park and saw my son laying on the ground ran and called an ambulance.
“My son remains in hospital with the threat of a stroke if his head swelling doesn’t go down to release the pressure.
“I could [have] easily lost my son tonight and wouldn’t want any parent going through what my family are tonight.”
She added: “The bruises will take four to six weeks but doctors just don’t know how long internal symptoms will take.
“We are just taking each day as it comes.
“I feel so frustrated that there is such a site like YouTube where bloggers get paid for putting such ideas and videos into young children’s heads.
“There needs to be some discussion about banning these videos after what’s happened to my son.”
A Nottinghamshire Police spokesman said: “Police are investigating after a boy sustained serious head injuries at a park in Tuxford on Wednesday 12 September.
“The boy fell off a roundabout in Ashvale Park after a moped is believed to have been used to spin it around.
“The boy remains at the QMC in a serious but stable condition. If anyone has any video footage of the incident, or was in the area at the time, please call us on 101, quoting incident number 62 of 13 September 2018.”
SWNS contributed to this story
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