12-Year-Old Boy Who Burned 35 Percent of Body in TikTok 'Fire Challenge' Tells Kids 'Not to Be a Follower'

After suffering burns on 35 percent of his body while attempting the “Fire Challenge,” Nick Howell has a message for other kids: “You shouldn’t try everything you see on social media.”

“It won’t go well,” the 12-year-old tells PEOPLE for this week’s issue, which explores the dangers ofTikTokchallenges. “I want to tell people not to be a follower, but to be a leader.”

It’s a lesson Nick learned on Thursday, Oct. 7, 2020, the day after his grandfather’s death. Nick was sitting on the back porch at his grandmother’s house in Miami with his younger brother and cousins. While the adults were in another room, the kids were joking and talking about TikTok videos — including one clip of the “Fire Challenge,” in which a teen doused objects with accelerant and lit them on fire. Nick, then 11, spotted a lighter and decided to try it.

“I poured a little bit of rubbing alcohol on the [concrete] floor, lit it and put it out,” he remembers. “But I guess the bottle had caught on fire, and it exploded. I started burning.”

When he looked down, all he saw were the flames. He started running toward the front of the house where the grown-ups were gathered, screaming, “Mami! Papi!”

Nick Howell in the hospital.courtesy Estela Guillen

His father and two uncles patted him down and sprayed him with the garden hose to put out the fire.

“It was horrible,” says his mother, Estela Guillen, 30. “It was heartbreaking, devastating … and traumatic.”

Josh Letchworth

For more on dangerous TikTok challenges — including expert advice for parents — pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribehere.

Nick Howell.Josh Letchworth

He spent almost six months in and out of the hospital and had 50 surgeries. Because of damage to the nerves in his legs, he had to relearn how to walk, stand and get dressed.

After seeing the life-threatening impact that viral videos can have on kids, “I have to bubble wrap my children,” says his mother. “They’re all super adventurous… they will try something.”

The ordeal has led to a paradigm shift in her household.

“His accident opened up my eyes in many ways, but especially in my own parenting,” she says. “You think you’re vigilant, but that’s clearly not enough. We have to make our children understand that there are really real life consequences to these challenges.”

Nick Howell (left) with mom Estela Guillen (right).Josh Letchworth

TikTok declined to comment to PEOPLE for this week’s story about alarming challenges online, and the number of users injured performing challenges is unknown, but in an updated safety policy released in February, the company says, in part, “We do not permit users to share content depicting, promoting, normalizing or glorifying dangerous acts that may lead to serious injury or death.”

source: people.com