Teenager Mason Dark has been left disfigured with severe burns covering 75% of his body after a dangerous TikTok challenge went horribly wrong.
A 16-year-old TikToker and football player was hospitalized after attempting to create a makeshift blowtorch with a spray paint can and a lighter.
Mason Dark and his friends were participating in a dangerous TikTok challenge, which sees social media users use flammable aerosols to create miniature flamethrowers.
The teen nearly lost his life after the can he was holding exploded in his hands, covering him in flames. This left Mason severely disfigured, with horrific burns over 75% of his body.
Teen hospitalized after TikTok challenge goes wrong
“He’s unrecognizable. Unrecognizable,” his mother, Holli Dark, told WRAL. “[We] come to find out now from the surgery, that he’s got the third-degree burns… it’s like a T in his back and it was from him taking off his shirt, and then it got stuck or something.
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“We did not find out until yesterday that it was actually 76 percent of his body,” she told the outlet.
Mason has already undergone several surgeries to get skin grafts. The young football player is expected to recover from his injuries and spend six months in a burn center.
His mom added: “The way he looked when those kids saw him when he first came in, to what he looks like now, it’s 100 times different. He jumped into a river to extinguish the flames. The risk of infection from the river water is high, on top of having 2nd and 3rd degree burns.”.
In the wake of the incident, Heidi Simpson, Mason’s grandma, launched a GoFundMe to help the family cover medical bills and other expenses as they deal with the tragic situation. At the time of writing, the fundraiser has raised over $18,000 of its $25,000 goal.
