An Australian teenager’s fresh start turned into a devastating tragedy after a backflip stunt to celebrate his “new life” ended in fatal injury.
Eighteen-year-old Sonny Blundell, who had just relocated from New South Wales to Queensland for a concreting job and to move in with his girlfriend, suffered a severe head injury after attempting a backflip inside their new apartment on June 24.
“He hit his head on the floor in the lounge room, had a headache and went to bed,” his sister Izabella Cromack-Hay told The Daily Telegraph. “He later woke up, went to the toilet vomiting, and then passed out. That’s when his best friend found him unresponsive the next morning.”
Blundell was rushed to the ICU at a Queensland hospital, where doctors discovered he had suffered multiple strokes and a brain bleed.
“The first 24 hours were critical — we almost lost him,” Cromack-Hay wrote on a GoFundMe page created to help cover medical expenses. “There was major uncertainty whether Sonny would survive.”
Doctors performed emergency brain surgery and placed a drain to relieve pressure. But despite their efforts, Blundell fell into a coma and ultimately passed away from his injuries on June 30.
“Our beautiful Sonny has grown his wings,” Cromack-Hay wrote in a heartbreaking update. “We are all in disbelief and major pain.”
The family is now raising funds to bring his body back home to New South Wales for burial. The GoFundMe campaign has raised nearly $16,000 so far.
“We need to bring Sonny home — his sisters are waiting for him,” his sister wrote.
His mother, Madeline Blundell, posted a tribute on Facebook: “I’ll bring you home, my boy, my love, my soul and my heart. I miss you so much, my baby. Ma is here.”
Blundell’s death is the latest in a string of fatal accidents involving celebratory stunts. In 2017, South African bodybuilder Sifiso Lungelo Thabete died after a failed backflip at a competition entrance. And in 2014, Indian soccer player Peter Biaksangzuala fatally injured himself attempting somersaults after scoring a goal.
