{"id":708752,"date":"2026-06-17T03:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T03:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/708752\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T03:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T03:30:09","slug":"benadryl-challenge-leaves-oklahoma-girl-brain-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/708752\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Benadryl Challenge’ leaves Oklahoma girl brain dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Oklahoma girl was left brain dead after she participated in the dangerous \u201cBenadryl challenge<\/a>\u201d social media trend, according to reports.<\/p>\n

Leah Presson, 15, is in an intensive care unit after the dangerous trend \u2014 which encourages teens to overdose on allergy medication \u2014 triggered a catastrophic series of seizures and cardiac arrest, NewsNation<\/a> reported. <\/p>\n

Now, there is no activity in her brain.<\/p>\n

Leah Presson, 15, who participated in the \u2018Benadryl challenge.\u2019 Richard Presson<\/p>\n

The trend, akin to \u201crobotripping<\/a>,\u201d involves ingesting enormous amounts of diphenhydramine, the active ingredient in Benadryl, to experience delirium and hallucinations.<\/p>\n

The participants film themselves while intoxicated to showcase their absurd behavior.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tell her to keep fighting and stay strong. You got this. You\u2019re a fighter,\u201d Leah\u2019s father, Richard Presson, told KFOR<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Richard described Leah as a compassionate and giving person with an infectious laugh.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe in miracles, that she\u2019s definitely a miracle baby,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

Searches for \u201cBenadryl\u201d or \u201cBenadryl challenge\u201d on TikTok reroute the user\u00a0to community guidelines and substance support resources.<\/p>\n

The Food & Drug Administration put out a statement in 2020 warning the public of adverse health effects from consuming too much diphenhydramine, which can cause \u201cserious heart problems, seizures, coma, or even death.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leah Presson in an Oklahoma City intensive care unit. Richard Presson<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are aware of news reports of teenagers ending up in emergency rooms or dying after participating in the \u2018Benadryl challenge\u2019 encouraged in videos posted on the social media application TikTok,\u201d the statement continued.<\/p>\n

Health professionals warn that excessive Benadryl consumption can lead to cardiac arrest.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you take the Benadryl or diphenhydramine in excess of that, in excess of this, it can lead to seizures and cardiac arrhythmias, and sometimes those cardiac arrhythmias lead to cardiac arrest, which can lead to no blood to the brain, which can lead to brain death,\u201d Dr. Ryan Brown of Oklahoma Children\u2019s at OU Health told<\/a> ABC8.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf your child is acting strange, look around,\u201d Dr. Brown continued.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Benadryl allergy medicine. Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cMake sure that there\u2019s not an empty pill bottle or something in the vicinity that may lead you to a clue as to what may have been going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dangers of the \u201cBenadryl challenge\u201d are well-documented by medical professionals: in Connecticut, authorities recently linked the drug to three teen deaths.<\/p>\n

Rady Children\u2019s Hospital in San Diego reported at least five emergency department visits in a single week due to the challenge, while Fort Worth Children\u2019s Hospital in Texas recorded more than 100 patient visits over a six-month period, including one death, according to KFOR<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Oklahoma girl was left brain dead after she participated in the dangerous \u201cBenadryl challenge\u201d social media trend,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":708753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[2605,3282,97,243,9600,1153,194],"class_list":["post-708752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-drugs","tag-experimental-drugs","tag-health","tag-medication","tag-oklahoma","tag-tiktok","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=708752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/708753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}