Australia’s Ally Langdon struggled to hold back tears as she spoke with grieving parents forced into the heartbreaking decision to end the life of the precious daughter they’d brought into the world just 13 years before.
Andrea and Paul Haynes appeared on A Current Affair, courageously sharing their devastating experience after losing their daughter Esra to a viral craze known as chroming—a dangerous social media trend where teenagers inhale toxic chemicals through their mouth or nose to experience a brief high.
Esra was described by the Montrose Football Netball Club, where she was a beloved co-captain, as a “determined, fun, cheeky, and talented” young girl. She was a passionate athlete who raced BMX bikes alongside her brothers and proudly led her aerobics team to a national championship in Queensland.
Tragically, on March 31, what began as a simple sleepover at a friend’s house turned fatal when Esra inhaled aerosol deodorant. Within moments, she went into cardiac arrest, suffering irreversible brain damage.
“It was just the regular routine of going to hang out with her mates,” Andrea painfully recounted to Langdon. Paul added, with visible grief, “We always knew where she was and who she was with. It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. To get that phone call late at night was the call no parent ever wants. We unfortunately got that call: ‘Come and get your daughter.’”
Langdon explained that Esra’s friends initially thought she was experiencing a panic attack, unaware her body was shutting down. By the time paramedics arrived, Esra’s condition had deteriorated severely. Andrea rushed to her daughter’s side, only then learning of chroming—a term she’d never heard before that night.
For eight agonizing days, Esra’s family held tightly to the hope that her strong heart and lungs would help her recover. But the moment came when doctors delivered the unthinkable news: Esra’s brain was damaged beyond repair, leaving her parents to make the devastating decision to turn off life support.
Reliving their worst nightmare, Paul and Andrea spoke of the immense pain of losing their little girl. Paul shared the heartbreaking moment they were asked to invite family and friends to say their goodbyes. “It was a very, very difficult thing to do to such a young soul. She was placed on a bed so we could lie beside her. We cuddled her until the end.”
Overwhelmed by the family’s grief, Langdon, herself a mother of two young children, couldn’t contain her emotions, tearing up during the interview.
Since Esra’s tragic death in early April, Paul described his family as utterly “broken,” and Esra’s siblings, Imogen, Seth, and Charlie, as “shattered.”
“It’s devastating for everyone—her friends, our community, everyone who knew her,” Paul said. “It’s been the most traumatic time any parent could go through. We haven’t been sleeping, we’ve barely eaten, we haven’t smiled—we’re just not ourselves anymore. And it’s impacted our whole community.”
Now on a mission to save others from the same fate, Esra’s family is determined to raise awareness about chroming—a deadly trend easily carried out with common household items like deodorant, hairspray, paint, or permanent markers. Paul said that had they known about chroming earlier, they would’ve discussed the dangers with Esra.
“We need to ramp up education so kids learn the facts first-hand, not through friends or social media. Parents need to gently open these conversations at home—we certainly had no idea this was happening,” Paul explained passionately.
Since 2009, multiple young lives across Australia and around the world have been lost to chroming, a practice that can cause seizures, heart attacks, suffocation, coma, sudden sniffing death, and organ failure. Despite these dangers, its immediate short-lived high remains dangerously attractive to teens.
Reflecting on the trauma that will forever haunt them, Paul emotionally confessed, “We’ve got images in our minds that will never be erased—our gut was ripped out.”
The unimaginable pain of choosing to turn off their daughter’s life support is something no parent should ever endure. Our hearts are with the Haynes family and all who loved Esra.
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