A 12-year-old boy from Texas is in hospital with severe burns after attempting a dangerous TikTok experiment. Caden Ballard and his older brother replicated a video that involved pouring rubbing alcohol into a bottle and setting it alight, causing flames to shoot up the container.
The incident occurred on 16 August. After the fire appeared to have gone out, Caden's brother told him to dispose of the bottle. 'My brother grabbed and said, “Here, throw it away.” So, I grabbed it to throw it in the trash can, [and] my shirt was on fire,' Caden told local station KXAN.
Unbeknownst to the boys, they had used isopropyl alcohol, which can produce an invisible flame when ignited. The resulting burns covered 11 per cent of Caden's body, ranging from second to third degree. His mother, Christina Ballard, described the scene: 'He was just face, chest, arms, stomach covered in burns. It looked like his skin had been melted away.'
Caden's brother acted quickly, pulling off his shirt and telling him to stop, drop and roll, which minimised the damage. 'I don’t know how you were brave enough to reach into the flames and pull the shirt off of your brother. But I thank God every single day that you were brave enough to do that,' Ballard said.
Caden was taken to a burns unit in Dallas and is being transferred to a children's burn unit in Galveston. He has already undergone surgery and faces weeks of intensive care, recovery and therapy. A GoFundMe page set up for the family said: 'Caden is a strong and determined young man, but this journey will be long and painful.'
Christina Ballard is now urging parents to talk to their children about the dangers of recreating online stunts. 'We got very lucky; unfortunately, it’s bad, but Caden and I are very lucky that it wasn’t a lot worse,' she said.
