Inhalant abuse

Henry is 14 years old, lives in the country and goes to boarding school in Sydney. He and a school friend decided to try inhaling deodorant, a process known as ‘snuffing’. Henry collapsed and had a cardiac arrest, a known complication due to hydrocarbons such as butane in inhalants. A school teacher gave him cardiopulmonary resuscitation for 15 min until his circulation returned and an emergency team took him to hospital. He was muscle relaxed, cooled and ventilated artificially. His parents flew in and watched in horror. The clinical parameters and scans were encouraging. When Henry was extubated, he seemed OK but was too weak and needed reintubation. The next day, extubation was successful and the first thing Henry asked for was his smartphone. When he punched in his password without hesitation, his mother wept in the realisation that she had her Henry back. When asked if he had thanked the teacher, Henry’s father said that he had given school assembly that morning and told the boys about Henry’s mishap and how his teacher had saved his life. Henry made a complete recovery.