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'Hot Water Challenge' Accident Prompts Doctor's Warning: Don't Throw Boiling Liquid At Your Friends
“If your friends are telling you to do this, they aren’t good friends.”
A viral stunt dubbed the “Hot Water Challenge” landed an Indiana 15-year-old in the emergency room with second-degree burns, leading experts to caution children against pouring boiling liquid on one another.
Kyland Clark of Indianapolis said he and his friends were checking out YouTube videos of others performing the challenge — but when he fell asleep, his pals decided to give it a shot.
“When I came to my senses, the water got hot and I just got up and ripped my shirt off,” Kyland told FOX 59.
“To see my baby all burned up like that, it was heartbreaking,” his mother, Andrea, told the network.
Kyland was hospitalized for a week after the ill-conceived prank, suffering burns to his back, chest and face.
“If your friends are telling you to do this, they aren’t good friends,” warned Indiana physician Ed Bartkus.
The lucky teen is expected to make a full recovery — but he warned others to use better judgment before participating in dangerous internet fads.
“There’s a limit to what you should do in a challenge and what you shouldn’t,” Kyland said. “Don’t take it overboard.”
The viral “prank” is the latest in a series of inscrutable and potentially fatal YouTube trends.
In January, the “Tide Pod Challenge” swept the nation, spurring warnings from medical experts and politicians — including NFL star Rob Gronkowski and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer — urging kids not to eat caustic chemicals for the amusement of strangers online.
“I don’t know why they make them look so delicious,” Schumer said of the colorful laundry packets.
[Photo: ABC13 Houston via YouTube]
