A US 13-year-old male has passed after participating in a viral TikTok challenge.
This challenge is said to involve swallowing up to 14 benadryl pills, in order to bring on hallucinations. Participants are meant to post about their experience to the social media platform.
This trend began in 2022 and has already caused multiple hospitalisations among Australian teens who have attempted to participate.
Jacob Stevens, who is from Ohio, has began to seize up after taking a lethal dosage. He was the rushed immediately to hospital while his body began shutting down.
He was on life support for six days when his family decided to let him pass. His brain functionality had ceased.
His father, Justin has taken to warning parent and teens of the dangers social media can impart and shared a photo of Jacob hooked up to life support in order to spread awareness.
“It was too much for his body." He said it was the “worst day of his life”.
“No brain scan, there was nothing there. They said we could keep him on the vent, that he could lay there, but he will never open his eyes, he’ll never breathe, smile, walk or talk.”
“It didn’t matter how bad of a day I was having, no one could make me smile, Jacob could make me smile," Justin said tearfully.
Justin and the rest of Jacob's familyt have begun pushing politicians to take preventative steps to stop other kids and teens from participating in such challenges, and to put age-restrictions on over-the-counter medications like Benadryl.
They have also pushed forward a suggestion for age-restrictions before you can even create accounts on social media platforms like TikTok, as it will force users to provide identification before they can join.
A statement was issued by the US Food and Drug Administration, warning the dangers of participating in the "Benadryl Challenge." They have also become aware of the reports of teens ending up in emergency rooms or dying due to it.
“Taking higher than recommended doses of the common over-the-counter (OTC) allergy medicine diphenhydramine (Benadryl) can lead to serious heart problems, seizures, coma or even death.
“We are aware of news reports of teenagers ending up in emergency rooms or dying after participating in the Benadryl Challenge encouraged in videos posted on the social media application TikTok.”
Queensland Ambulance Service proved a frightening amount of call-outs in recent weeks since the trend has become popular.
Some of the injuries sustained were seizures and head wounds for those who participated. Other side effects can include a racing heart rate.
“There were four calls in one hour in South East Queensland and all of those children needed transport to hospital,” a spokeswoman said last year.
The trend has prompted Johnson and Johnson to issue a statement as well.
“We understand that consumers may have heard about an online ‘challenge’ involving the misuse or abuse of diphenhydramine."
“This challenge, which involves the ingestion of excessive quantities of diphenhydramine, is a dangerous trend and should be stopped immediately.”
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