A heartbroken British mum is issuing a warning to fellow parents about the dangers of 'chroming', after the deadly social media trend left her son days away from death.
In August of last year, whilst Nichola King had been breastfeeding her two-year-old baby, she heard her pre-teen son Cesar collapse in the kitchen of their Doncaster, South Yorkshire home.
The commotion had caused a loud thud, after which the 36-year-old rushed to the room to see her 12-year-old enduring a seizure on the floor.
"I heard like a moaning sound from downstairs and thought Cesar had broken a bone or something," King later told press.
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"I started going downstairs and saw Cesar lying on the floor and his eyes were rolling back into his head."
Terrified, she called upon her other children to help, encouraging them to call an ambulance.
"I thought he'd fallen over and hit his head. I had no idea what had happened," King continued. "He went blue and stopped breathing. I thought he'd died. I was in complete shock.
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"I'd watched my son die and watched the light go out of his eyes."
The mother-of-four even attempted CPR on Cesar, whilst his big brother Kaidan contacted the authorities.
The child was subsequently rushed to Doncaster Royal Infirmary, where doctors told King that he'd suffered a cardiac arrest.
Whilst in their care, Cesar continued seizing, and endured a number of further heart attacks. This saw the youngster placed into a medically-induced coma, where he remained for two days.
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During this time, police investigated the family's home, stumbling across a bottle of Aldi Lacura anti-perspirant close to the area that Cesar had been found by his mother.
After similar paraphernalia was also discovered, it was later ascertained by authorities that the boy had been taking part in the dangerous social media trend 'chroming' minutes before he hit the ground.
"I'd not heard of [chroming] before this," King confessed after being dealt the heartbreaking news. "An older boy had showed him how to do it.
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"When police told me what he'd inhaled, I thought he was going to die. I knew it said on the back of cans 'solvent abuse kills instantly'."
'Chroming' sees part-takers inhaling toxic chemicals, including the likes of paint, solvent, aerosol cans, cleaning products or petrol, in a bid to enjoy a short-term 'high'.
The illegal trend - which is tragically well-documented on video-sharing apps - causes side effects like slurred speech, dizziness, hallucinations, nausea and disorientation.
In the most fatal cases, however, 'chroming' can trigger a heart attack or suffocation.
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Thankfully, in Cesar's case, after being transferred to Sheffield Children's Hospital, the youngster made a full recovery.
By the eighth day under care, he'd begun breathing on his own, and could walk and talk again.
"I was over the moon," King admitted following his release last year. "He was almost back to completely normal when he was discharged - eating, drinking, having a laugh. He just feels tired."
She went on to note: "If I hadn't heard something that night, I'd have come downstairs to a dead body the next morning. I've spoken to Cesar and asked him to never do anything like this again.
"I've thrown out everything in the house that sprays."
Naturally, King is using her devastating experience as a means of raising awarness of 'chroming', so other mums and dads don't have to endure the heartache of almost losing a child.
"I'd say to the kids, it's not worth it," she explained. "It might feel good but it definitely doesn't when you're in the hospital trying to breathe for yourself and the pain you cause to your parents.
"And I want to stress the importance of parents being first-aid trained. I think anyone with kids should attend a course as it could be the difference between life and death."
Topics: Social Media, UK News, News, Health, Parenting
Rhianna Benson