Australian journalist Ally Langdon couldn’t hide her heartbreak while speaking with a grieving mother and father who had to make the unimaginable decision to end the life of their 13-year-old daughter—the same life they had so lovingly brought into the world.
Their daughter, Esra Haynes, tragically lost her life after falling victim to a dangerous viral trend known as chroming. As a mother herself, Langdon struggled to hold back tears while listening to their story.
A Devastating Loss
Appearing on A Current Affair, Andrea and Paul Haynes shared the painful journey that led to their daughter’s passing. Esra, just 13 years old, was a vibrant and talented athlete. She co-captained the Montrose Football Netball Club, raced BMX bikes with her brothers, and had even led her team to a national aerobics championship in Queensland.
On March 31, she went to a friend’s house for a sleepover—what seemed like an ordinary night. However, in pursuit of a fleeting high, she inhaled aerosol deodorant, causing her to go into cardiac arrest and suffer irreversible brain damage.
“It was just a regular hangout with her friends,” Andrea recalled in the interview.
Paul added: “We always knew where she was and who she was with. Nothing seemed unusual… Then we got the phone call no parent ever wants to receive: ‘Come and get your daughter.’”
At first, Esra’s friends thought she was having a panic attack, unaware that her body was shutting down due to cardiac arrest. When Andrea arrived, paramedics were desperately trying to revive her. That was the moment she first heard the term chroming—a word she had never encountered before but one that would change her life forever.
The Hardest Goodbye
Esra was rushed to the hospital, and her family clung to hope. Her heart and lungs were strong—maybe, just maybe, she would recover.
But after eight days on life support, doctors gave them the devastating news: Esra’s brain was damaged beyond repair. They had to make the excruciating choice to let her go.
Struggling to find the words, Paul and Andrea described the heartbreak of saying goodbye to their little girl.
Surrounded by family and friends, they lay beside her in her hospital bed, holding and cuddling her until the very end.
A Family in Mourning
Esra’s death shattered her family. Paul describes them as completely “broken”, with her siblings—Imogen, Seth, and Charlie—struggling to cope.
“It’s been the hardest, most traumatic time a parent could ever go through,” Paul shared. “We can’t sleep, we barely eat, we don’t smile. We’re not ourselves. And it’s not just us—it’s affected our whole community.”
Determined to prevent another family from experiencing this same pain, Paul and Andrea have now made it their mission to raise awareness about the dangers of chroming. This easily accessible but deadly practice involves inhaling chemicals from household products like deodorant, hairspray, paint, or markers to get high—often with tragic consequences.
Paul wishes he had known about chroming before it took his daughter’s life. “Had we been educated, we would have talked about it at the dinner table,” he said.
A Call for Awareness
Now, Paul is calling on parents to have open conversations with their children about the risks.
“Parents need to start these discussions gently but early. We had no idea this was even happening,” he emphasized.
Since 2009, chroming has claimed multiple young lives in Australia and around the world. The practice can lead to seizures, heart attacks, suffocation, coma, and sudden death.
“We will never forget what we saw that night,” Paul told Langdon. “It ripped our hearts out.”
No parent should ever have to make the agonizing decision of taking their child off life support. Our thoughts are with the Haynes family and all who loved Esra.
Please share this story to spread awareness and help protect young lives from this devastating trend.