12-year-old Caden Ballard and his older brother saw a video on TikTok in which alcohol is poured into a bottle and set on fire, causing flames to rise from the bottle.
Caden said: “My brother grabbed it and said, ‘Throw it.’ So I picked it up to throw it (and) my shirt caught fire” (Caden Family/GoFundMe)
A teenager in the US state of Texas was badly burned after a dangerous TikTok experiment went wrong, causing him to be hospitalized.
12-year-old Caden Ballard and his older brother saw a video on the social media app in which alcohol is poured into a bottle and set on fire, causing flames to rise from the bottle.
“My brother and I did it and it felt good,” Caden told K-news channel XAN, recalling the incident on August 16. “But when the fire seemed to be going out, his brother told him to throw the bottle away.”
“My brother grabbed it and said, ‘Throw it away.’ So I picked it up to throw it away (and) my shirt caught fire.”
The boys were unaware that they had used isopropyl alcohol for their experiment, which can create a flame that is invisible when ignited. As a result, the fire that erupted from it caused second- and third-degree burns on 11 percent of Caden’s body.
The boys’ mother was in another part of the house when the incident occurred and a friend who heard the boys calling the emergency number alerted her to the situation.
The boys’ mother, Christina Ballard, recalled the terrifying moment she saw Caden on the porch. “His face, chest, arms, stomach were all burned. It was like his skin was melting off. They (the boys) love to listen to stories on TikTok. You know, Reddit stories. I never expected something like this to happen.”
She praised Caden’s brother for his quick reaction, taking off his shirt and telling him to stop. Get on the ground and get back up so the flames could be extinguished and the damage could be minimized.
“I don’t know how you were brave enough to put your hand in the flames and pull your brother’s shirt off,” Ballard said. But I thank God every day that you had the courage to do this.’
According to the family’s GoFundMe page, Caden was rushed to the burn unit in The Dallas and is now being taken to the pediatric burn unit in Galveston. He has already had surgery and will now have to stay in intensive care for several days for treatment and recovery.
According to the page: ‘Caden is a strong and determined young man but his journey will be long and painful.’
The page adds that ‘his parents are with him in all honesty but the financial strain has compounded the emotional burden. Long days in the hospital, missed work, travel to and from The Dallas and increasing costs at home.’
Now Christina Ballard is urging parents to educate their children about the dangers of reenacting online stunts. She added: ‘We were very lucky. “Unfortunately, it’s bad, but Caden and I are very lucky that things haven’t gotten much worse.”
