A 13-year-old girl in Australia’s Melbourne died after taking part in a social media trend called “chroming” which involves inhaling substances for a quick high.
Esra Haynes died after inhaling chemicals from an aerosol deodorant can, reported 7news.com.au.
Her father Paul Haynes said that the incident took place last month when he received a call from his daughter’s friends to pick her up from a sleepover after she fell unconscious following an attempt at chroming.
The act, also known as “huffing”, can also involve inhaling the dangerous fumes from metallic paints, solvents, petrol, and household chemicals.
Mr Haynes said that his daughter suffered a cardiac arrest and spent a week-and-a-half in hospital, where he and his family watched “her struggle to stay alive”.
“In the end, we had to make the decision, we had to turn off her life support,” he was quoted as saying. It was really devastating, devastating for everyone involved, all her friends as well.”
He said that since her death the family has struggled to eat and sleep.
“It’s been the most difficult, traumatic time any parent could go through. We haven’t been sleeping, we’ve hardly been eating, we haven’t been smiling, we’re not ourselves,” he said.
“I think I’ve aged ten years.
“But it’s not just affected us, it’s the community as well.”
Mr Haynes said there needed to be awareness around the lethal act to prevent such deaths in the future.
“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.”
“If we were educated and the word had been put out there, we would have had the discussion around our kitchen table for sure,” Mr Haynes said.
“(Parents) need to sit and have a chat to their children, and just open that conversation up gently with them.
“We certainly didn’t know what was going on.”
Since 2019, two 16-year-old boys have died after participating in the trend, reported The Strait Times.
Another teenage girl suffered brain damage after attempting the trend.
