The Ohio girl who got hit in the head with a shovel in this week's newest viral Vine video is not dead, despite a flurry of Internet hoax stories.
It all started Monday when a six-second Vine clip – pulled from a longer, eight-minute YouTube video – began gaining steam on social media. In the video, 16-year-old Miranda Fugate and 15-year-old Emily Powers, of Vandalia, Ohio, are brawling in a front yard when Powers runs off, grabs a shovel, and hurls it at Fugate.
The flying tool whacks the girl right in the head, knocking her down in what some are calling "the best video on the Internet."
It's not clear exactly what caused the fight that culminated with the epic shovel-throw, but some media outlets reported that it started over a boy.
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Regardless, the video then spawned a series of rumors that Fugate died from blunt-force trauma to the head.
"Miranda Fugate died of serious head injuries after being hit with a shovel in the head by an old friend of hers named Emily Powers," t
he false report on Huzlers.com stated. "The whole thing was caught on video and posted all over the internet and generated around 500,000 video views in just two days."
But Fugate — who, according to her social media profile, "smokes weed for a living" — is alive and well. She spoke with
Dr. Drew Pinsky on his HLN show "On Call" Tuesday to address speculation that the fight was staged.
"The fight was not staged at all. I did not have any plans to get hit in the head with a shovel," she said. "I still have a concussion right now and there's blood behind my eardrum and I think I have to have surgery on my ear."
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