- A teenager in North Carolina suffered burns to 75% of his body after attempting a TikTok challenge.
- Mason Dark’s mother told WRAL that he is now “unrecognizable.”
- The teenager, an avid football player, is set to be in the burn unit for six months.
A teenager in North Carolina has suffered burns to 75% of his body after attempting a TikTok challenge.
Mason Dark, 16, was engaging in a TikTok challenge that involved spraying a highly inflammable paint aerosol into a lighter when his family heard a “big boom” when the can exploded, according to WRAL.
Dark was then set alight and jumped into a river to extinguish the flames, but he had already sustained severe burns.
His mother, Holli Dark, told WRAL that he is now “unrecognizable.”
Dark was then rushed to the UNC Burn Center in Chapel Hill, where he had surgery.
Doctors discovered the vast majority of his body was covered in third-degree burns.
“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,” Dark’s mother said.
The teenager, an avid football player, is set to be in the burn unit for six months.
His family has set up a GoFundMe to cover medical bills and other expenses needed to aid Dark’s recovery.
At the time of writing, Dark remains sedated in hospital and has undergone his first of many surgeries.
“We thank everyone for their thoughts, prayers, support, and love,” Dark’s grandmother wrote on the fundraising page, where the family has so far raised $20,000 of their $25,000 goal.
