- Let's take a look and diagnose some of the most incredible circus daredevils stunt
acts when they go wrong. This is gonna be tough to watch, be aware, but let's get started. Be whoop. - [Announcer] For human
cannonball, Ermes Zamperla, it's just another day on the job. - [Announcer] Three, two, one. - Imagine that's your job. What do you do? I get shot out of a cannon. I guess they probably
say they're more like a, an adrenaline artist or a
high flying act, stunt person. - [Announcer] And Ermes cheerfully waves goodbye to the crowd before disappearing into the firing tube. - I hate that we're watching it right now. - [Announcer] He hears
the usual countdown. - [Crowd] Five, four, three, two, one. - [Announcer] And feels the
old familiar jolt, but then. - Okay, mechanism of injury. He broke his coccyx and nothing else because momentum carried him forward and he actually slid quite well that it might not be that bad. - [Announcer] He overshoots his airbag and crash lands on the hard packed earth. - He did hit the back of his head. That's gonna lead to
some concussive symptoms, maybe a brain bleed. - [Announcer] His back is broken and he has a severe head injury. - I watched that video and I
don't know how I'm not dead or I'm paralyzed from the neck down. I can't remember nothing of
the accident or that day. - When he says his back is broken, he had a head injury, that is
in line with what we thought, but I'm curious if it was
his tailbone that broke. Tailbone or pelvis. I would've been very surprised if it was something more than that. He could have had compression fractures elsewhere as well though. - [Announcer] What you're about to watch may be difficult for some viewers. - Oh no. - [Announcer] The acrobat falls. - Oh my god, that's such a bad fall. I saw the back. Remember a mechanism of injury is one of the most important
things that we look at and he hit himself right
in the thoracic region. There could be broken ribs,
broken thoracic vertebrae. There's just a lot of pain there. A lot of blunt force trauma. - Collapsed lung, cracked
three ribs, crushed vertebrae, and a little crack in my spine. - Mechanism of injury checked off every injury that occurred. I said vertebrae fracture, which is spine. Cracked rib and then
the rib ended up poking and collapsed his lung which I didn't say but is assumed when you break a rib. And compression fractures are
very unique in their pain. They take a long time to heal and we've actually used
some unique treatments to combat some of that pain, including calcitonin nasal sprays. Pretty interesting mechanism
of action on how those work. Oh no. - [Announcer] This morning, this video being made public. - Why do I feel like this
is like an amateur group getting together and
trying this highwire act for the first time? - [Announcer] It shows
the gut-wrenching moment the Flying Wallendas. - Oh, it's the Flying Wallendas. They're like the most
experienced tightrope walkers. Actually, you know I have
a video with Nik Wallenda. - [Cameraman] Really? - Yeah, we shot a commercial together. It's not just me and Nik
Wallenda, it's also Mr. T. - [Announcer] Eight person pyramid, lost their balance and
toppled off the wire. - Oh my. - [Announcer] Five
members of the circus act plunging several stories to the ground. The seventh generation
family of wire walkers were practicing the new
stunt with no safety net, admitting that terrifying fall
gave them a taste of PTSD. - PTSD, this is terrible. Why is there no safety equipment? I don't care how talented you are. Put some padding on the floor. - [Announcer] He said the fall was so bad it made him consider quitting
the high wire for good. - That's actually why fear
is instilled in our brains as humans to prevent us
from walking high wire and losing our lives. Sometimes we can get
really good control of it where we can do amazing things, but sometimes it could lead us astray. Like when we fall down
during situations like this. - My mouth is wired shut. I broke every bone in my face. - Oh my God, she fell on her face. This is why basic, at least, safety equipment needs to be there. Jaws wired shut usually
happens as a result of some mandibular or maxillary fracture and they do something known
as mandibulomaxillary fixation where they actually wire the jaw shut to allow it to heal properly. This can be to four to six weeks, sometimes two to three
months in extreme cases. Something sick that was done
in like the 1970s and eighties, wiring people's jaws shut in
order to have them lose weight. Those studies were a failure because as soon as their
jaws were unwound and opened, the people put the weight back on 'cause it was kind of an abusive way for them to lose weight so can't believe they even tried that. - [Announcer] When the curtain dropped to reveal eight members of
the Medeiros Hair-Hang Act, this was not supposed to happen. - Oh my God. First of all, the hair hang
act is really impressive because human hair is pretty strong. It has a good tensile strength. I remember a study came out
that tested thicker hair, like elephant hair, versus human hair, and elephant hair is like four
times as thick as human hair and yet human hair was stronger. Like a single strand of human hair can hold like a hundred grams. So that means like 10 human
hairs can hold up a kilogram, which is like two and some odd pounds. - [Announcer] The injured
were put on stretchers at the scene and taken immediately
to Rhode Island Hospital. - Yeah, you gotta put C-spine
stabilizers right away 'cause if you have any
instability of the vertebrae because they're broken,
it's very dangerous, 'cause if you misposition
them in some way, you could actually end up
damaging the spinal cord. So much so that you can
have the person end up with paralysis, either
paraplegic or quadriplegic, or even to death. It could be that severe
if it's high enough. - [Announcer] Rhode Island officials are now blaming the accident on a clamp. Something called a D-ring
that apparently broke. It was attached to a cable
and when it gave way, the whole apparatus came apart. - Oh my god, they really
do swing on their hair. So maybe that hundred grams is quite true 'cause the average person has a hundred thousand
strands of hair on their head. That's why it's normal to
lose about a hundred a day. I'm sure they're losing
more than a hundred a day 'cause they're abusing theirs,
but the average person, if you see like a hundred
throughout the day, you might think it's a lot. It's pretty normal actually. What is this? Oh, I thought these are robots. These are real people. Stop, oh my God, it's on fire. Burns are so bad because not only are they life-threatening in terms of organ damage, but you also get these really dramatic electrolyte abnormalities and dehydration because having formidable skin on you actually prevents you from dehydrating. - [Reporter] Boy, somebody
made a mistake at this. - Oh no, oh no. - [Reporter] Watch this. - He hit his head. - [Reporter] The rider hit a cable high. - Oh it was a cable, that's
so incredibly dangerous. It poses such a risk of decapitation, that decapitation is not only brutal, but you're gonna see so much blood. 'cause the carotid arteries
are gonna just keep on pumping for at least a few seconds and you're gonna get massive blood flow. - [Reporter] He broke his leg,
wrist, elbow, and shoulder, but promises to get back on
his bike once he recovers. - That's incredible that
nothing more happened than a few broken bones, wow. - [Announcer] This is a training session filmed as Anne Eckis climbs
on the back of Shamu. Halfway around Anne
slips and Shamu spooks. - Oh no, is Shamu angry? - [Announcer] A diver jumps
in immediately to free Anne but he's no match for this four ton whale. - Is she a trainer? - [Cameraman] In training. - [Announcer] Shamu surfaces, but Anne's leg is locked
in his powerful jaws. - Oh my God. - [Announcer] A handler pushes a pole down on the whale's tongue and he lets go. - Oh my God. - [Announcer] Anne's alive
but will need 25 stitches. - 25 stitches, and definitely
some sort of therapy. That was so scary, my God. This feels just so unnecessary. And like animals are beautiful and yes, we wanna get kids excited about them. There's gotta be a better way. - [Announcer] Ken Peters,
an experienced trainer, is swimming with a 5,000
pound female named Kasatka, an animal he's worked with for years. With no apparent warning, the killer whale grabs his feet and pulled him underwater
for close to a minute. - Oh my God. - [Announcer] Then it
brings him to the surface where the trainer pets the whale, tries to calm it, only
to be yanked down again. - Oh my God. And a minute is reasonable, but remember when your heart
rate is through the roof 'cause you don't know what's going on, you're burning oxygen a lot faster. That's why he's trying to
stay calm as much as possible 'cause the more you stay calm, the more you keep your heart rate lower, the less oxygen you're actually using. (audience clapping) Oh no, what's about to happen? Is this a person participating? Deadpool? (audience clapping) I wonder what's being said. - [Spectator] Oh my God. - Is he gonna throw his back out trying to lift him or something? (audience clapping) Oh my God, who is he looking to? Oh my God, he knocked him out cold. How is that supposed to go? That looked absolutely terrible and he clunked his head on this really hard surface right away. I mean, remember the brain sits in a soup. So when you get this kind
of torsion on the axons and you get axonal injury of the brain, that's what causes these types of inflammatory concussion
like symptoms inside the brain. Those can last for weeks at a time. Oh my God, don't carry him like that. That is terrible way of
handling the situation. You're not stabilizing the spine, you're not making sure that
they're on a backboard. That is an unforgivable act for that show. Yes, sometimes things go wrong, but sometimes we get real
life rescues caught on camera. Click here to check that out. And as always, stay happy and healthy. (upbeat music)
