A 15-year-old boy had his skin terribly scolded in a prank gone horribly wrong.
Kyland Clark and his friend were playing around last week, as you’d expect teenagers to do, when they decided to take part in the latest viral craze, the ‘hot water challenge’.
Both promised to do it to each other and Kyland’s friend was true to his word – pouring boiling hot water over him, which caused his skin to scold.
The massive integration of social media and the internet makes it hard to monitor the harmful network of content. Social media, in particular, has a breeding ground for some of the most stupid viral trends putting people in harm’s way.
Whether it’s eating washing detergent or jumping out of a moving car to do a dance – it’s hard to stem the tide. All you can hope is it dies out and the next viral trend isn’t as life-threatening.
The hot water challenge encourages participants to drink boiling water through a straw or pour it over their heads. Since it’s rise in popularity there’ve been numerous cases of the challenge/prank going wrong and Kyland Clark is the latest casualty.
It was all fun and games for the teenager and his friend, from Indiana, after looking up the nature of the ‘challenge’ on YouTube last week, as reported by WDBR.
According to Clark, his friend poured hot water over him while he was asleep as a joke, but things soon turned serious, explaining:
I looked down at my chest. My skin just fell off my chest, and then I looked in the mirror and I had skin falling off here and on my face.
He had to spend a week in hospital as a result of suffering second-degree burns on his back, chest and face.
Since coming out of the hospital his skin has been left bright pink as a result of the scalding, however, doctors say his natural skin colour should soon return.
His doctor, Ed Bartkus, pointed out how lucky he was not to be scarred for life and warned those attempting to take part in the hot water challenge, may not be as fortunate as Kyland.
Dr Bartkus stated:
It’s suggesting to people that they can try it and they won’t be hurt, but they will be, I can guarantee it.
If you’re friends are telling you to do this, they aren’t good friends.
His mother, Andrea said:
To see my baby, all burned up like that, it was heartbreaking.
Kyland appears to have learned his lesson though, saying the painful experience made him acknowledge:
There’s a limit to what you should do in a challenge and what you shouldn’t. Don’t take it overboard.
Last year an 11-year-old girl, Jamoneisha Merritt, from New York, suffered from a similar experience after her friend, Aniya Grant Stuart, aged 12, poured hot water over her as part of a ‘prank gone horribly wrong’ during a sleepover.
The incident left Merritt with second-degree burns.
If you have a story you want to tell send it to UNILAD via stories@unilad.co.uk.
