Australia’s Ally Langdon couldn’t hide the sadness bubbling inside when she spoke with a mom and dad, who were forced into the painful decision of taking the life of the young girl whom they had given life to only 13 years before.
A young girl lost her life because of a dangerous trend known as chroming, and Langdon, who is also a mother, found it hard to keep her tears from flowing.
On the show A Current Affair with Ally Langdon, Andrea and Paul Haynes talked about their heartbreaking experience of losing their 13-year-old daughter, Esra Haynes. She passed away after trying a dangerous social media trend known as chroming, which is when people inhale harmful chemicals through their mouth or nose to feel high.
Esra, who co-captained the Montrose Football Netball Club, was described as “determined, fun, cheeky, and talented.” She was a young athlete who loved racing BMX bikes with her brothers and even helped her team win a national aerobics championship in Queensland.
On March 31, Esra visited a friend’s house for a sleepover. Unfortunately, she decided to sniff a can of aerosol deodorant, which led to a serious situation. She went into cardiac arrest and suffered severe brain damage that couldn’t be fixed.
Her mom, Andrea, explained to Langdon during the interview, “It was just a normal routine for her to hang out with her friends.” Her dad, Paul, chimed in, “We always knew where she was and who she was with. It was nothing unusual… Getting that phone call late at night was something no parent ever wants to experience, but we got that call: ‘Come and get your daughter.'”
Langdon says that Esra’s friends believed she was just having a panic attack. However, after she inhaled some deodorant, her body was really beginning to shut down. She was in cardiac arrest, and nobody at the sleepover knew what to do about it.
When Andrea arrived at Esra’s side, paramedics were trying to revive Esra and told mom that her daughter had been chroming, something she had never heard of until that moment.
Esra was brought to the hospital, clinging to the hope that her baby girl would get better. Since her heart and lungs were strong, there was a chance she could pull through.
After being on life support for eight days, Paul and Andrea learned that Esra’s brain was so badly damaged that it couldn’t be fixed. They had to make the tough choice to turn off the machine.
Struggling with their words, and reliving their worst day, her parents explained the pain of ending their daughter’s life.
The heartbroken brothers and sisters of a Year 8 student who passed away from chroming are determined to help others avoid the same tragedy. Esra Haynes, a teenager from Don Valley, suffered a cardiac arrest after inhaling deodorant. #9News | WATCH LIVE 6pm Posted by 9 News on Wednesday, April 12, 2023.
Esra’s dad shared how hard it was to say goodbye to someone so young. He explained, “We had to bring family and friends to the hospital for one last farewell. It was really tough. They placed her on a bed so we could be close to her. We held her tight until the very end.”
Overwhelmed by the parent’s heartache, and a mother of two young children, Langdon was unable to contain her emotions and teared up.
After Esra died in early April, Paul says the family is completely “broken,” and Esra’s siblings, Imogen, Seth and Charlie are “shattered.”
Paul expressed, “It was truly heartbreaking, not just for us but for all her friends too. This has been the hardest and most painful experience any parent could face. We can’t sleep, we barely eat, and we haven’t smiled in ages—we just don’t feel like ourselves anymore. And it’s not only us; the whole community is feeling the impact.”
Paul and his wife had never heard of chroming until it tragically took their daughter’s life. Now, they are on a mission to raise awareness about this dangerous trend. Chroming involves using common products like deodorant, paint, hairspray, or even permanent markers, and it’s becoming more popular among teenagers.
Paul talked to a local news station and expressed that he wished he had known about chroming when Esra was still alive. He felt that if he had known, he could have warned her about the risks. He said, “If we had been informed and the information was shared, we definitely would have talked about it at our kitchen table.”
“We need to ramp it up and let these kids find out the information first-hand, and not through friends, and not through social media–then they’re given the right advice off the bat.”
Paul plans to educate parents, allowing them the opportunity of educating their children, and hopefully saving their lives. their children.
Parents should take some time to talk to their kids and start a conversation in a kind way. We really had no idea what was happening.
Since 2009, the alarming trend of chroming is responsible for the deaths of multiple children across Australia, and around the world.
Chroming is a dangerous activity that can cause serious health problems like seizures, heart attacks, suffocation, sudden sniffing death, coma, and organ failure. Despite these risks, many young people are drawn to it because it provides a quick and intense high.
“We’ve got the pictures in our mind which will never be erased, you know, of what we were confronted with,” Paul told Langdon. “Our gut was ripped out.”
It’s really hard to think about how much it hurts for a family to decide to take their young child off life support. We feel so sorry for the Haynes family and everyone who cared about Esra.
Share this story with everyone you know and help parents save the lives of their children by educating them on the dangers of this fatal trend.