What was supposed to be the best night of his life turned into a nightmare for a young Romanian man, after being thrown into the air and dropped by his friends during his own wedding, and suffering spine fractures.

31-year-old Liviu Filimon was enjoying his wedding party in Baile Felix, north-western Romania when some of his friends decided that it was time to celebrate Liviu’s union with his new bride by throwing him into the air. It’s a common celebratory custom all over the world, but in order to avoid tragedy, it’s key that the person being tossed into the air also be caught on their way down. Sadly, that second part didn’t go according to plan in this case, and the young groom wound up in the hospital with multiple spine fractures.

Photo: Alvin Mahmudov/Unsplash

A viral video that captured the harrowing incident shows the 31-year-old groom being picked up by his friends as he approaches the dancefloor, and then being tossed into the air. They manage to catch him the first time, but then they go for a second throw and this time they don’t synchronize their effort, resulting in Liviu flying off to one side and hitting the marble floor on his back.

Unfortunately, his friends made another error when they picked up the injured groom and placed him on a chair, instead of leaving him where he laid until the ambulance arrived. The fall had caused a couple of since fractures, and by the time he arrived at the Emergency County Hospital in Oradea, he could barely move his left leg, and couldn’t feel the right one.

Luckily, Liviu’s situation improved overnight, and he regained feeling in both legs. Still, doctors told reporters that he wasn’t out of the woods yet and that he remained hospitalized in the neurosurgery ward. He was scheduled to undergo more tests this week.

After sharing a worrying selfie from his hospital bed, Filimon told local reporters that he had contacted a lawyer, but was still considering whether to sue anyone. As for the wedding, it went on even as he went to the hospital with a fractured spine, with the guests being entertained by the bride and the groom’s parents.

Liviu’s story went viral in Romania, before being picked up by international news outlets. On social media, people obviously blamed the guys who threw him into the air.

‘When you have friends who like to get drunk…” one person commented, while another called the custom of throwing the groom into the air “stupid”.