Australian Ally Langdon was overcome with emotion when she spoke with a mother and father who were forced to make the agonizing decision to end the life of their tiny kid, whom they had given birth to only 13 years previously.
Langdon, who is a mother, fought to hold back her tears as she saw the young girl perish due to the fashionable chroming craze.
Andrea and Paul Haynes discussed their 13-year-old daughter Esra Haynes’ death after participating in the dangerous chemical inhalation fad known as “chroming,” popular on social media, on A Current Affair with host Ally Langdon.
Esra, a child athlete who competed in BMX races with her siblings and co-captained the Montrose Football Netball Club, was described as “determined, fun, cheeky, and talented” by her colleagues. Esra’s squad also won a national aerobics championship in Queensland.
On March 31, Esra went to a friend’s house for a sleepover and sniffed an aerosol deodorant can in search of a fatal high. As a result, she went into cardiac arrest and suffered severe brain damage.
“It was just her regular routine of going to hang out with her mates,” Andrea, her mother, said Langdon in the interview. “We always knew where she was and who she was with,” her father Paul stated. It was nothing out of the usual…It was one of those calls that no parent ever wants to get at that time of night, and we unhappily received it: ‘Come and grab your kid.'”
According to Langdon, Esra’s companions thought she had a panic attack, “but after inhaling deodorant, her body was actually starting to shut down, she was in cardiac arrest, and no one at the sleepover used cardiac arrest.”
Andrea arrived at Esra’s side as she was being revived, and the paramedics informed her mother that her daughter had been chroming, which she had never heard of before.
Esra was brought to the hospital in the hope that their little daughter would recover completely. After all, she had a strong heart and lungs, so she might survive.
According to Paul and Andrea, Esra’s brain injury was “beyond repair,” and they had to make the decision to turn off the machine after eight days of life support. Her parents described the agony of killing their daughter while having difficulty speaking and recalling their darkest day.
“It was a very, very difficult thing to do to such a young soul,” Esra’s father stated when asked to bring relatives and friends to the hospital for their final goodbyes. She was placed on a bed so that we could lie with her. We cuddled her right up till the death.”
Because of the parents’ anguish, Langdon, the mother of two young children, lost control of her emotions and began crying. Following Esra’s death in the first week of April, Paul states that Imogen, Seth, and Charlie are “shattered” and the entire family is “broken.”
“It was really devastating, devastating for everyone involved, all her friends as well,” Paul explained. “It’s been the most difficult, traumatic experience any parent could have.” We haven’t slept, we haven’t eaten, we haven’t smiled–we aren’t ourselves…But it has touched the entire community, not just us.”
Paul and his wife had never heard of chroming until it killed their daughter, and they are now on a mission to raise awareness of the deadly viral trend, which is becoming increasingly popular among teenagers and is easily accomplished with store-bought materials such as deodorant, paint, hairspray or even permanent markers.
In an interview with a local news outlet, Paul expressed regret for not being aware of the risks of chroming when Esra was still alive and might have warned her: “If we had been educated and the word had gotten out, we would have definitely had the discussion around our kitchen table.”
“We need to ramp it up and let these kids get the information firsthand, not through friends or social media–then they’ll get the right advice right away.”
Paul wants to educate parents so that they can improve and even save their children’s lives. Their children.
“(Parents) should sit down and talk to their children, and they should start the conversation gently.” We certainly had no idea what was going on.”
Since 2009, numerous children have perished in Australia and other areas of the world as a result of the concerning chroming trend. Chroming, which can result in organ failure, seizures, heart attacks, asphyxia, and sudden death, is popular among young people as a rapid high.
“We’ve got images in our heads that will never be erased, you know, of what we were confronted with,” Paul explained to Langdon. “Our gut was ripped out.”
We can’t imagine how terrible it must be for a family to decide to take their little child off life support. Our hearts go out to the Haynes family and all of Esra’s loved ones.
Leave a Comment