'You're Watching Expecting Something Bad To Happen': Doctors Warn Against Milk Crate Challenge
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The milk crate challenge continues to show up on social media, and doctors would prefer it not to.
The videos have been all over social media. It's a simple concept: go up and then down a flight of milk crates.
Allegheny Health Network Orthopedic Sports Medicine Surgeon Dr. Nicholas Bonazza said a fall standing up can cause a twisted knee or ankle. Once you add height to the equation, it opens the door for more serious injury.
"You're watching expecting something bad to happen," Dr. Bonazza said.
One of the latest participants was Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster. He successfully completed the challenge, but Dr. Bonazza said even for someone in his shape, it's dangerous.
"No matter who you are or how well-trained or fit you are, the risk is the same for a lot of people," Dr. Bonazza said over Zoom.
He said these trends come every so often on social media because it has "challenge" attached to it.
"I think certainly if the original videos titled themselves creative way to send yourself to the emergency room with a milk crate, you would have less people trying it," Dr. Bonazza said.
In addition to broken bones, falls can land someone in the hospital with long-term injuries like concussions.
"It's important for people to recognize that a lot of these things could have long-term functional outcomes for them if they do sustain a certain type of injury," Dr. Bonazza said.
With COVID-19 cases on the rise, hospital systems are feeling the strain of the pandemic again. So it's not the best time to head to the emergency room because of a fall.
"We want to encourage people to avoid activities like this that create unnecessary risk or injury for themselves," Dr. Bonazza said.
TikTok is banning videos of the challenge from being uploaded to its site. To this point, AHN isn't seeing many injuries related to this, and the hospital system wants to keep it that way.
