An Australian teenager has died after hitting his head while doing a backflip in his new apartment, according to reports.
Sonny Blundell, 18, was celebrating his move from the Central Coast in New South Wales to the Gold Coast in Queensland when the incident occurred on June 24.
Blundell “was found unresponsive” by his housemate in the lounge room of their apartment, according to local newspapers The Daily Telegraph and The Courier Mail. He was hospitalized and placed into a coma before undergoing brain surgery. He later succumbed to his injuries on June 30.
Blundell was Celebrating Moving to Southport to ‘Start a New Life with His Girlfriend’
Blundell’s sister Izabella Cromack-Hay said he had recently moved to the Gold Coast suburb of Southport “to start a new life with his girlfriend” after being offered a concreting job in the area.
“Moving to Queensland only a month ago, which was his greatest accomplishment, he worked the hardest concreting and making himself known,” Cromack-Hay told the outlet.
Blundell had facetimed with his sister on the day of the incident, she recalled. He had been celebrating moving to Southport beach with his best friend Mitchell Bullard when he performed the backflip.
Blundell Suffered ‘Multiple Strokes,’ Brain Bleed
“He hit his head in the lounge room on the ground and had a headache went to bed,” Cromack-Hay told the outlet. “[He] woke up went to the toilet vomiting and then passed out that’s when his best friend found him unresponsive in the morning.”
Blundell was sent to the Queensland Hospital Intensive Care Unit. He suffered “multiple strokes” and a brain bleed ahead of having brain surgery, his sister shared on a GoFundMe page before his death.
“The first 24 hours were the most critical … we nearly lost him after having multiple strokes and another bleed, which led to him needing a drain in his brain,” wrote Cromack-Hay. “There is major uncertainty that Sonny will or will not pull through. He’s working his hardest as there could be recovery and rehabilitation.”
The GoFundMe page so far has raised nearly $23,255 (AUD) to bring Blundell back to New South Wales and pay for funeral costs.
