Teen, 15, suffers ‘extreme brain injury’ after participating in dangerous social media trend

A teenage girl has been left in a medically induced coma after participating in one of social media’s latest trends.

Ava Broadhead, a 15-year-old from Magna, Utah, is fighting for her life after falling from the top of a moving vehicle on September 11. According to the high school student’s mother, Ava was “car surfing.”

“That’s what happens to all teens, they fall into peer pressure,” Kandis George, the teen’s mother, told KSL-TV. “They know that’s not smart!

According to George, Ava was supposed to be walking in her high school’s homecoming parade, but the event was canceled due to poor air quality.

“The parade was canceled because of the bad air quality and so these kids were all ready to go out and have a good time,” she said. “They decided to do the trend that’s seen on, I don’t believe it’s seen on TikTok anymore, but you can search it up other places called car surfing.”

“I’m sure it was, ‘Hey! We should do this, it would be fun,’ and not thinking, ‘Oh wait, what if I flung off this car. All these things are going to stop in my life because in the moment that seems fun,’” George said.

Ava fell off the top of a moving vehicle and hit her head on the pavement. She was rushed to the hospital around 9 p.m. in critical condition where she underwent emergency brain surgery.

“She had an extreme brain injury and she needed to be rushed into brain surgery and it was a life-or-death surgery,” her mother said.

Four days after the traumatic accident, doctors have begun to wean Ava off the sedatives keeping her in a coma. A GoFundMe set up to collect money to help the teen’s family pay for medical expenses shared that while Ava has been responsive to touch and commands, they are uncertain when she will fully wake up.

As Ava contains to recover in the hospital, her mother is doing everything she can to warn others about the dangers of social media trends.

“(Teens need to know) It’s not always cool to do those things, and it’s okay to say no to something dangerous like car surfing.”

Please share this with your loved ones and warn them about the dangers of participating in some social media trends. It’s not worth the potential long-term consequences.

READ MORE: