The distraught parents of a 13-year-old girl who died after inhaling dangerous chemicals from a can of deodorant are on a mission to make their daughter’s life count.
Esra Haynes, a 12 months 8 student at Lilydale High School on the east coast of Melbourne, suffered a cardiac arrest and irreversible brain damage after participating within the increasingly popular trend called “chrome plating” while staying overnight with a friend on March 31, 2023.
Her parents Paul and Andrea never foresaw this coming.
“It was the standard routine of spending time with friends,” said mum Andrea Current case.
“We at all times knew where he was and we knew who he was with. It was nothing out of the abnormal,” added Paul.
![Esra Haynes](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000011567242.jpg?w=1024)
“To get that decision right now of night, (it) was one in all those calls that no parent ever desires to answer, and unfortunately we got this call: ‘Come and get your daughter.’
“We have now images in our minds that may never be erased from what we have been coping with.”
Paramedics worked to resuscitate Esra on the scene and told Andrea that the teenager was “chrome plating– a dangerous and growing craze, especially amongst teenagers, involving the inhalation of chemicals in aerosol cans quick high.
This high proved fatal to “beautiful” and “cheeky” Esra, who was rushed to the hospital unconscious and placed on life support.
But eight days later, doctors said “her brain was damaged beyond repair” and the family decided to show off the machines.
![ESRA HAYNES](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000011567243.jpg?w=1024)
![ESRA HAYNES](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000011567245.jpg?w=1024)
“They ask us to bring family, friends to say goodbye to our 13-year-old daughter,” Paul said. Current case.
“It was very, very difficult for such a young soul.”
Esra’s parents and older siblings, Imogen, Seth and Charlie, “hugged her to the tip.”
The 13-year-old Victorian teenager is unfortunately the newest in an extended line of Australian teenagers who died after being ‘chromed’.
In 2019, a 16-year-old boy from NSW died after inhaling the aerosol. in 2021 A 16-year-old girl from Queensland suffered brain damage because of this of chrome plating.
And in 2022, one other 16-year-old boy from the state died after sniffing deodorant.
Many Coles and Woolworths supermarkets across Australia have began closing stock of canned deodorants in 2021. following a rise in theft of a staple food item and concerns about rising chrome plating rates.
![Paul and Andrew](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000011567247.jpg?w=1024)
![ESRA HAYNES](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000011567244.jpg?w=1024)
After Esra’s death, the Victorian Department of Education stepped up its efforts inform students in regards to the dangers of chrome platingand health workers spoke of its dangers.
But Paul and Andrea are calling for more action and far-reaching changes in order that one other family doesn’t should face the identical heartbreak.
They need aerosol manufacturers to reformulate deodorants to make them safer, and that each one schools across Australia teach CPR – and that first aid skills be refreshed every two years.
“For me, it is a gun on a shelf,” Paul said of deodorant cans.
“We want manufacturers to step up and really change the formula or propellants.”
He also said social media must be checked out more closely, which the Haynes imagine is Esra’s way of learning about chrome “to essentially close the loopholes” kids slip through to access “adult content.”
![Esra Haynes and siblings](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/NYPICHPDPICT000011567246.jpg?w=1024)
Most significantly, they need children and their families to know the results of chrome plating.
“Kids don’t run past the following day, really. And particularly not knowing how it would affect them,” Paul said.
“Esra would never have done it had she known the results.”
“However the ripple effect is such that it’s absolutely devastating,” added Andrea.
“We do not have a baby to take home or anything.”
The Haynes lost a daughter and a sibling, Esra’s AFL lost a teammate and second captain, her friends lost a friend, and the community lost a promising young woman.
Nevertheless, despite their heartbreak, the Haynes are sustained by bearing their daughter’s name.
“We want to speak about this,” Paul said. “Her name meant helper, so that is what we’re here for.”