A Pole Vaulter Needed 18 Stitches After Impaling His Scrotum During a Jump
TikTok is the latest trendy video-sharing app, used by everyone from Dr. Pimple Popper to service-minded doctors. It’s especially popular with teens, spawning trends that seem inexplicable to the olds, such as, say, dipping your balls in soy sauce. It’s brought us some amazing content, but it’s also produced some seriously cringe-worthy moments. Today’s viral hit, I’m afraid to say, is distinctly in the latter category: a video of a pole vaulter impaling his own scrotum, requiring 18 stitches.
It’s a short horror movie capturing something that must happen, but still seems like a terrifying one-in-a-million shot. The backstory is that 21-year-old Zac McWhorter, a Brigham Young University pole vaulter, was practicing his craft, shirtless and in a pair of cross-country shorts. In the video, the young athlete, with his entire life in front of him, starts on his approach run, trusty pole in hand. He plants it, everything going as expected, and propels himself up and over the bar.
RIP to this guy’s ballsack @5thyear @byubarstool (via @ZacMcWhorter)
A post shared by Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) on Feb 18, 2020 at 6:16am PST
As he comes down, though, the unthinkable happens, with the pole lancing him right in the testicles. There’s just enough time to see him react in shock and pain before the video stops, freezing him in mid-air.
Anyone with a pair is probably wincing along with McWhorter, but in a Buzzfeed interview he seems surprisingly sanguine about the whole thing. It might be because his coach—who’s both his father and a urologist—acted quickly, getting him to the hospital and sewing up his damaged package. "I could see right into my scrotum," he told BuzzFeed, sharing a picture of his torn and bloodied shorts. Luckily he’s okay, and now able to enjoy his newfound viral fame: His TikTok has almost four million views.
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