Australian host Ally Langdon struggled to hold back tears while interviewing Andrea and Paul Haynes, whose 13-year-old daughter, Esra, died after trying a dangerous viral trend called chroming — inhaling chemicals like deodorant spray to get high.
Esra was a bright, athletic girl who co-captained her netball club and raced BMX bikes. On March 31, during a sleepover, she inhaled aerosol deodorant, went into cardiac arrest, and suffered severe brain damage. Her friends thought she was having a panic attack, not realizing her body was shutting down.
When Andrea arrived, paramedics told her that Esra had been chroming — something the parents had never heard of. Esra fought for eight days on life support, but doctors eventually told the family her brain was beyond recovery. The parents made the heartbreaking decision to let her go, holding and cuddling her until the end.
Her family describes themselves and Esra’s siblings as “broken.” They now want to warn others about chroming, which has caused multiple teen deaths across Australia. Paul says he wishes he had known about the trend earlier: “If we were educated, we would have talked about it at the kitchen table.”
Now, they’re urging parents to talk openly with their kids to help prevent more tragedies.
