South Yorkshire, England
A 12-year-old boy, Ceser Watson King, attempted the chroming challenge as part of a social media trend. Watson inhaled a can of deodorant, which is part of the challenge and collapsed at his house in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, on August 21, according to the Metro.
What is the chroming challenge?
Chroming is a viral TikTok challenge in which participants try to inhale toxic fumes from paint, solvents, aerosol cans, cleaning products, or petrol, which provide temporary uplifts.
What happened?
His mother, Nichola King, who had just finished breastfeeding her infant, was stunned by the loud thud and immediately went downstairs to understand the reason behind it.
She was in a state of shock to find her son having a seizure on the kitchen floor before he suffered from cardiac arrest.
Nichola’s eldest son, Kaiden, responded maturely to the situation and called 999, while Nichola performed CPR as they awaited the ambulance. Ceser was rushed to the hospital and was in a coma for almost two days after suffering from seizures and cardiac arrests.
Fortunately, Ceser has returned home. Nichola, a mother of four children, posted a picture of her son receiving CPR. She shared this picture to warn others about this dangerous trend, which involves inhaling paint, solvents, aerosol cans, and many more substances to feel the temporary high.’
This practice can make a person suffer from slurred speech, dizziness, hallucinations, nausea, and disorientation, but it can also lead to heart attacks or suffocation.
Nichola explained the moment she heard her son collapse: "I was over the moon. He was almost back to normal when he was discharged-eating, drinking, having a laugh. He just feels tired. We don't know about long-term damage, but his short-term memory is very bad. He couldn't remember what had happened. If I hadn't heard something that night, I would have found a dead body the next morning. I've spoken to Cesar and asked him never to do anything like this again. I've thrown out everything in the house that sprays."
She was so horrified by the situation that she was unable to make the call for an ambulance and so asked her elder son to call.
“I thought he’d fallen and hit his head. I had no idea what had happened. He turned blue and stopped breathing. I thought he’d died. I was in complete shock. I watched my son die and saw the light go out of his eyes.”
The recovery
Ceser was taken to the Doncaster Royal Infirmary. Police told Nichola they discovered a can of Aldi Lacura deodorant and other chroming paraphernalia on the kitchen floor, which led them to suspect that Ceser had inhaled the whole deodorant before losing his senses.
He was then taken to Sheffield Children’s Hospital. After eight days, he was discharged from the hospital and sent home.
Nichola also wants to warn other children who might be tempted to try chroming: “It’s not worth it. It might feel good, but it definitely doesn’t when you’re in the hospital struggling to breathe and causing pain to your parents.”
(With inputs from agencies)