As much of the nation finds itself gripped by frigid weather, we shouldn’t be surprised to hear of people doing dumb things in the cold. Maddie Gilmartin of East Kingston, NH, discovered firsthand what happens when someone sticks his or her tongue to a flagpole in subfreezing temperatures. Needless to say, it’s a stunt she won’t try again.
“It just kind of popped into my head, hey what would happen if I stuck my tongue to a flag pole. At the moment I was like it will come right off,” Maddie said.
It didn’t.
“I’m stuck here in the middle of our yard just trying to get help,” Maddie said.
With her dad snow plowing at the end of the drive way here mom inside, Maddie tried pulling herself free.
“I see her standing at the flag pole her arms are waving and I’m not sure what’s going on until I got closer,” said Shawn Gilmartin, Maddie’s father. “She tried to pull her tongue off of it as soon as it happened and that’s what made it bleed. I had my hands cupped I was blowing, breathing on her lips and tongue.”
“I was just like, did I really just do that to myself, like did I really do just do that?” Maddie said.
Maddie was stuck on the flag pole for a full 15 minutes before being freed and then taken to the ER. Fortunately, she is going to be OK.
Gilmartin admitted she had never seen A Christmas Story, so she didn’t know about the infamous “sinister triple dog dare” scene. Cold compresses and ibuprofen will cure her sore tongue.
Her father is glad she wasn’t hurt worse and that she learned her lesson. What advice does she have for anyone who might be inclined to try a similar stunt?
“Just think before you do something,” Maddie said.
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