Mum's warning after she 'watched light go out' of her son's eyes and he almost died because of online challenge

*Warning: Please do not take part in the challenge described in this article as it could cause serious harm and may even be fatal*

Cesar-Raef Watson-King had allegedly inhaled a can of anti-perspirant last month after supposedly being shown an online trend called chroming by an older boy.

Chroming, which is also known as huffing, sniffing or rexing, involves people inhaling fumes from a toxic source, such as an aerosol can, a spray deodorant, or a paint container or a glue or solvent product.

The intention is for people to achieve a high, but it is a very dangerous trend. According to national drugs and alcohol helpline Talk To Frank, it can be hard to get the dose right to achieve the desired high, however, and a little too much can result in a coma or even death. Moments after Cesar supposedly engaged in the challenge, on Wednesday August 21 at around 11.30pm, his mum, Nichola King, found him having a seizure on their kitchen floor. The 36-year-old performed CPR to help revive him and restore his breathing as his brother rang for an ambulance. 

Cesar was then rushed to hospital, where he suffered further seizures and a cardiac arrest, before being placed in a medically induced coma. 

The pre-teen’s mum, who has four children, has spoken out about what happened to her son in a bid to stop other young people putting their lives at risk by taking part on the trend. The interview was reported on the MailOnline.

She said: “I had just finished breastfeeding my baby and was drifting off to sleep when I heard this really loud bang. I thought one of the kids had done something. I had heard Cesar creeping downstairs and thought he'd gone downstairs for something to eat. The bang sounded like someone had fallen over.

“I heard like a moaning sound from downstairs and thought Cesar had broken a bone or something. I started going downstairs and saw Cesar lying on the floor and his eyes were rolling back into his head.

“It was terrifying. He was having a seizure. I ran upstairs to get my phone. I couldn't even unlock my phone to ring an ambulance because my hands were shaking so much so my eldest rang 999.

“I thought he'd fallen over and hit his head. I had no idea what had happened. He went blue and stopped breathing. I thought he'd died. I was in complete shock. I'd watched my son die and watched the light go out of his eyes.”

Paramedics arrived and rushes him to Doncaster Royal Infirmary where he suffered several seizures and went into cardiac arrest a number of times, she said. He was then transferred to Sheffield Children’s Hospital and put in to a medically induced coma.

She also claimed she was told by police officers who also attended the scene that they found a can of deodorant and other chroming paraphernalia on the kitchen floor. This lead them to believe the youngster had inhaled the anti-perspirant as part of the trend before falling unconscious.

Last Monday (August 26), King shared a positive health update on her young son on Facebook page. She wrote: “He's talking actual, real words, loud and clear . . . he's showing a keen interest in getting home and seeing all of his friends and has promised to do all he can to get well quickly.”

She went on: “I've told him why he's here and he remembers absolutely nothing of the incident which is a good thing, for him, he's not traumatised, luckily.” She added that his memory was “a little bit naff” but that was “probably just the side effects of the sedative drugs”. Chroming is an Australian slang word for carrying out this act. The term originally came from the practice of inhaling a chrome-based paint, according to the National Retail Association in Australia,  but soon began to be used to refer to sniffing any volatile substances. 

Chroming has already caused major health issues or even proved fatal for other young people. 13-year-old Australian teenager Esra Haynes had been at a sleepover when she inhaled toxic fumes. She then went into cardiac arrest and suffered irreparable brain damage, and died in hospital a week later.

Another Australian teen, 16-year-old Brooke Ryan, was found dead in her bedroom clutching a bottle of deodorant. Her body was found covered in bruises, suggesting that the 16-year-old may have died from cardiac arrest.