A teenager suffered second-degree burns from the Hot Water Challenge, another stupid internet craze that is going around on social media and claiming victims.
Other so-called challenges that have gone viral this year include the Tide Pod Challenge, where people record themselves eating small pods of laundry detergent, and the Condom Challenge, where people inhale condoms through their nose and pull them through their throat and out their mouth. The stupid viral challenges are very dangerous, and the Hot Water Challenge follows the same vein.
The Hot Water Challenge Explained
In the Hot Water Challenge, participants either drink boiling water through a straw, or pour the boiling water on a friend. The activity sounds dangerous, mostly because it really is. In fact, a child already died last year after drinking boiling water as part of the Hot Water Challenge.
According to doctors, they are seeing more patients being taken to emergency rooms due to viral internet challenges. Unfortunately, for a teen from Indiana, he turned out to be one of them.
Teen Burned By Hot Water Challenge
Kyland Clark, a 15-year-old from Indianapolis, looked up the Hot Water Challenge on YouTube. Clark's friend then decided to prank him, and poured hot water on him while he was sleeping. Whatever his friend expected would happen after pouring hot water on him, it was likely not what transpired.
"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," Clark said.
Clark became the latest Hot Water Challenge victim, with second-degree burns on his chest, back, and face. He was confined in the hospital for a week as he received treatment.
"To see my baby, all burned up like that, it was heartbreaking," said Andrea, the teen's mother. Clark and his mom are now looking to warn other families on the dangers of the Hot Water Challenge.
The Hot Water Challenge is actually not new, as it has been circulating on video-sharing websites and social media since as early as 2013 or 2014. However, it appears that teens have not learned about the dangers of the activity.
"It's suggesting to people that they can try it and they won't be hurt, but they will be. I can guarantee it," said Dr. Ed Bartkus, Clarian Methodist Hospital EMS director.
According to Barktus, teens who do the Hot Water challenge may end up with permanent disfigurement, due to the burns on their bodies, or even death, if the boiling water burns to their airways.
