Former Rare Staff
Warning: The imagery in this article is graphic.
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Another child has been harmed by the dangerous “Hot Water Challenge” trend, which involves enduring scalding water when poured on skin. Nickolas Conrad, 15, like others before him, had scalding water thrown on him as he slept around 3 a.m. The teen was crying in bed for two hours because it hurt so much. He says his “friends” said they didn’t realize the water was that hot, water that was heated up in a microwave.
“They told me that they poured hot water on me and they didn’t realize it was that hot. It was pretty bad at the time,” he told Arkansas Matters.
Although the teen is expected to make a full recovery, his mom, Mickey Conrad, is speaking out about the “cruel” and “criminal” challenge that is “not a joke or prank.”
“It could have very well been his face. It could have been more intense … more damaging,” she said. “Didn’t see it coming.”
“Thank God it wasn’t his face … his eyes,” the concern mom added. “I want [the ‘Hot Water Challenge’] stopped.”
An eerily similar incident happened in the Bronx, N.Y. at the beginning of August.
Jamoneisha Merritt, 11, was at a sleep over and had hot water thrown on her face and torso as she slept during a sleepover. She suffered second-degree burns as a result. This incident was specifically linked to the “Hot Water Challenge.” Merritt is handling the traumatizing assault in an inspiring way.
As the New York Post noted in its previous report about Merritt, 8-year-old girl Ki’ari Pope of Florida died in July after being dared to drink boiling water through a straw by her cousin. Those children, we now know, were influenced by YouTube videos of people taking the “Hot Water Challenge.”
