Boy, 12, Dies After Sniffing Aerosol

A 12-year-old boy died over the weekend after inhaling air freshener fumes from an aerosol can, a fad that may be returning, some drug counselors warned Monday.

Tyler James Pinnick, a sixth-grader at Vista View Middle School, died at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach early Sunday after his great-grandmother and paramedics found him unconscious in a bathroom.

At the great-grandmother’s home Monday, the boy’s grieving parents struggled to understand why he had been inhaling aerosol fumes. The practice is known as “huffing.”

“He wasn’t a depressed kid, or in any trouble,” said Tyler’s father, Dennis Pinnick. “It could have been boredom; it could have been peer pressure. I just can’t judge those kids. The thing is, he was alone.”

They described Tyler as an affectionate son who cared for his sisters and was generous with his emotions.

“He came home every day, and he always called,” his mother, Renee Sherer, said. “He always told me he loved me, even in front of his friends. . . . I thought I was the luckiest mom in the world.”

Sherer said she had tried to educate her son about alcohol and illegal drugs like marijuana. “We talked openly . . . but I’d never heard of ‘huffing,’ ” she said.

Saturday night, the father said, Tyler’s great-grandmother had gone to the bathroom door to check on him and heard a loud thump. Unable to open the locked door, she called paramedics, who found him unconscious. They were unable to revive him. Nearby, they found a can of air freshener.

The boy’s death came at the beginning of the period that has been declared of National Inhalants and Poisons Awareness Week.

Medical experts say sniffing glue or aerosol products can prevent oxygen from entering the bloodstream, resulting in damaged organs, blackouts or death.