After a TikTok challenge he attempted went horribly wrong, a 16-year-old high school student-athlete in North Carolina suffered severe burns and had to undergo surgery. The burn harmed 80% of Mason Dark’s body, according to WRAL.
The Heritage High School kid was believed to be taking part in a TikTok challenge in which participants use a lighter and a spray can as a torch, but things did not go as planned. “He is unrecognizable, unrecognizable,” Holli Dark, Mason’s mother, said.
Following the incident, Mason jumped into the river to alleviate the pains he suffered. “They all heard a big boom, and then Mason came running out and [he] started taking off his shirt,” Dark said.
“[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,” she added.
Mason’s body had to be wrapped after he was taken to the UNC Burn Center. “We did not find out until yesterday that it was actually 76% of his body,” Dark said.
Mason will be on admission at the burn center for six months. “It is challenges on TikTok,” Dark said. “I guess kids have been doing this a long time.”
Over $40,000 has since been raised for Mason via a GoFundMe account that was created for him.