US /

Teen Severely Burned by 'Hot Water Challenge'

He suffered 1st and 2nd degree burns on his neck
By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 30, 2017 11:10 AM CDT
'Hot Water Challenge' Injures Sleeping Teen
The "hot water challenge" is sending kids to the hospital.   (Getty Images / grandriver)

A teen boy is recovering from severe burns in Arkansas after he awoke to scalding hot water being dumped on him at a sleepover. Nickolas Conrad, who is 15, was treated at a hospital in Little Rock for first and second degree burns on his neck and under his arm, where the boys pushed a cigarette lighter into his skin, reports Arkansas Matters. But it was hours after the 3am incident, because he spent two hours crying in bed until he couldn't stand the pain anymore. "Burning, screaming, flesh rolled off," his mother describes her son when he was dropped off at her house the next morning. Only then did he go to the hospital. She says her son is likely the victim of a dangerous "hot water challenge" trending among teens.

Conrad, who tells THV11 that it was "the worst pain of my life," says the boys turned his life into a game and that he wants to be left alone. "They're not my friends anymore and they're not going to be." The adults overseeing the sleepover say they were asleep and unaware of the dangerous prank, but the teen's mother has called the police, who say they are looking into the incident with no charges yet filed. Earlier this month, an 11-year-old girl was hospitalized in the Bronx for almost two weeks after a 12-year-old girl allegedly threw boiling water on her at a sleepover, per the New York Daily News. In Arkansas, the boys heated the water in a microwave and told Conrad they didn't realize it was so hot. (An 8-year-old girl died months after her cousin told her to sip boiling water from a straw.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X