When their beautiful, healthy teen daughter left for a sleepover, two parents had no idea it would be the last time they would see her alive and well. Just eight days later, they were forced to remove their brain-dead daughter from life support.
Esra Haynes was just like any other 13-year-old girl. She enjoyed hanging out with classmates, playing sports, and going to sleepovers with her friends. When the teen headed for a sleepover at a friend’s house, her parents made sure to find out where she was going to be and who would be there. Unfortunately, their careful parenting wasn’t enough to protect their daughter from a dangerous trend.
Esra was spending the night with friends at a Melbourne classmate’s home when Paul and Andrea Haynes answered a call no parent wants to receive. After the couple was told to “come and get your daughter,” they rushed to the home to find police and paramedics desperately trying to resuscitate the unconscious teen, the New York Post reports.
Esra was transported to a local hospital and immediately placed on life support. She would never wake up. Just eight days later, her parents were forced to pull the plug. Now, they are warning parents everywhere to be wary of a trend making its rounds among even the best and brightest teens.
While at the sleepover, Esra had engaged in a viral trend called “chroming,” which involves inhaling or ingesting household chemicals that anyone can purchase from a store, Daily Mail reports. Items such as bug spray, aerosol deodorant, spray paint, and hairspray are being used by teens across the globe to achieve a deadly high, and it’s already claimed countless lives. After huffing some deodorant, Esra fell into a coma from which she would never wake up.
“We thought we would bring her home,” Andrea said.
“We still had hope, we did not think the worst,” Paul said.
Esra was kept alive at the hospital for just over a week before her family was told that she would never recover because “her brain damage was beyond repair.” Her parents and three older siblings said their goodbyes and made the gut-wrenching decision to turn off her life support.
“She was put onto a bed so we could lay with her,” a heartbroken Paul said. “We cuddled her until the end.”
In the wake of her death, the Victorian Education Department stepped up efforts to educate students about the dangers of chroming. However, Paul and Andrea say it’s not enough. They are calling for manufacturers to change aerosol formulas so that they are safer.
“For me, it’s a pistol sitting on the shelf,” Paul said of the deodorant cans. “We need the manufacturers to step up and really change the formulation or the propellants.”
More importantly, Esra’s family wants parents to understand the dangers of these viral trends and to educate their children on the possibly fatal consequences.
“Kids don’t look beyond the next day, they really don’t. And especially not knowing how it can affect them,” Paul said. “Esra would never have done this if she would have known the consequences.”
“But the ripple effect is that this is absolutely devastating,” Andrea added. “We’ve got no child to bring home or anything.”
In response to numerous deaths similar to Esra’s, retail stores across Australia have begun locking up their deodorant cans in glass cases to prevent teens from getting hold of the items.
While it’s understandable that Esra’s parents are desperate to prevent such a tragedy from happening again, many disagree that it’s the manufacturers’ responsibility to protect their children.
There will always be items with potentially harmful ingredients. However, it is up to the user not to abuse these products just as much as it is up to the parents to raise their children with respect for the consequences of such dangerous behavior.
