Nineteen-year-old Renna O’Rourke, from Arizona, died on June 1 after participating in a viral social media trend, and her family is now seeking to raise awareness of the devastating impact of ‘dusting,’ they told NBC local affiliate KPNX.
Dusting, also known as ‘chroming’ or ‘huffing,’ is a trend where a computer dusting spray is inhaled to get high. The practice can cause damage to both the liver and lungs, Dr. Randy Weisman told AZfamily.com.
Aaron and Dana O'Rourke told the site that Rennar was "vibrant and vivacious," and loved to sing before her death by sudden sniffing death syndrome.
She was just the most caring, beautiful soul I've ever, ever known," her mother said.
Shortly after inhaling the spray, Renna went into cardiac arrest and was declared brain dead after several days in the ICU.
“We want to make sure that we use our tragedy so that no other parent has to experience looking at their child on life support and a ventilator and not breathing on her own all because she huffed out of a can," Dana O'Rourke said.
Renna’s organs were donated and her heart was sent to California, a state her mother said she dreamed of one day living. “So, in a way, her heart is taking her there,” she said.
Deadly social media trends
Dusting is not the first online trend to have cost the life of a young person. At least six people, including a 13-year-old girl, died last year in New York alone after attempting the viral subway surfing challenge, CNN reported.
Fourteen attorneys general across the United States sued TikTok in part over the dangerous viral challenges, according to the report.
A few years prior, professionals expressed concern over the viral “Tide Pod Challenge”, in which people, mostly teenagers, would eat the laundry capsules.