Esra Haynes, a Year 8 student from Melbourne, went into cardiac arrest and suffered irreversible brain damage after participating in a popular social media trend called “chroming” at a sleepover in March, according to news.com.au.
Her parents Paul and Andrea were absolutely blindsided by the devastating death.
“It was just the regular routine of going to hang out with her mates,” Andrea told A Current Affair.
“We always knew where she was and we knew who she was with. It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary,” Paul went on.
“To get this phone call at that time of night... [it] was one of the calls no parent ever wants to have to receive and we unfortunately got that call: ‘Come and get your daughter’.
Paul and Andrea Haynes said their daughter’s death “rocked our world”. Photo / A Current Affair
“We’ve got the pictures in our mind which will never be erased of what we were confronted with.”
Paramedics attempted to revive Esra. They told Esra’s mum that her daughter had been “chroming” - a dangerous trend among young people where the chemicals in aerosol cans are inhaled to experience a quick high.
The trend ended up being fatal for the “beautiful” and “cheeky” Esra, who was taken to hospital and put on life support.
Just over a week later, doctors said “her brain was damaged beyond repair”, and her family made the tough decision to turn off the life support machines.
Andrea Haynes said she cuddled her daughter until the very end. Photo / A Current Affair
“They’re asking us to bring family, friends to say goodbye to our 13-year-old daughter,” Esra’s dad told Ally Langdon on A Current Affair.
“It was a very, very difficult thing to do to such a young soul.”
Esra’s parents and her older siblings Imogen, Seth and Charlie “cuddled her until the end”.
“So in that split second, your entire world changed?” Langdon asked, teary-eyed.
“Absolutely,” Paul responded, overwhelmed with emotion. “Our gut was ripped out.”
The Melbourne teenager’s death is the latest in a string of Aussie teenagers who have died after trying “chroming”.
In 2019, a 16-year-old boy died after inhaling the fumes from an aerosol can; in 2021, a teenage girl from Queensland suffered brain damage from the deadly trend and last year another 16-year-old boy died when sniffing deodorant.
After Esra’s death, the Victorian Education Department is increasing its efforts to provide school kids with more information about the deadly side effects of chroming.
However, Paul and Andrea are calling for more action and change to prevent other parents having to live through the same nightmare they did.
The couple want aerosol manufacturers to change formulas in deodorants to be safer and less toxic, and for CPR to be taught in all Australian schools and refreshed every two years.
Esra Haynes was the youngest of four siblings: Seth, Charlie, and Imogen. Photo / A Current Affair
“For me it’s a pistol sitting on the shelf,” Esra’s father said of deodorant cans.
“We need the manufacturers to step up and really change the formulation or the propellants.”
He went on to say that there needs to be more control and investigation into social media platforms and the content they show “to lock down on the loopholes” that children fall into that expose them to “adult content”. The Haynes believe Esra learned online about the lethal chroming trend that took her life.
But, above all, Esra’s parents want children and families to be informed of the deadly consequences of chroming.
