Oklahoma Teen Dies After Viral Benadryl Challenge, Father Says “Educate Your Kids”

A 15-year-old Oklahoma girl has died after taking part in the “Benadryl challenge,” a viral social media trend that pushes teenagers to take far more than the recommended dose of a common allergy medication. Her father is now speaking out to warn other parents before it happens again.

Leah Presson, of Enid, first started having seizures at home. Her father, Richard Presson, said the family initially believed it was related to her history of asthma, and she was rushed to an emergency room in Enid.

The truth turned out to be far more serious. Leah was later transferred to the intensive care unit at Integris Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City after going into cardiac arrest. Doctors ran multiple tests and found no detectable brain activity.

What the Benadryl Challenge Actually Is

The Benadryl challenge involves taking excessive amounts of diphenhydramine, the active ingredient in Benadryl, in an attempt to get high or experience hallucinations. It is sold over the counter and is easy for teenagers to access.

Dr. Ryan Brown, a physician with Oklahoma Children’s at OU Health, said the danger comes from what the drug does to the heart and brain in large amounts. “When you take the Benadryl or diphenhydramine in excess, 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,” he said.

Leah was declared brain dead on June 14, 2026. Her father said he wasn’t ready to give up hope. “I don’t even want to think about a funeral because I feel like there’s still hope,” he said in the days before her death. “I believe in miracles, that she’s definitely a miracle baby.”

A Final Gift

Leah’s family made the decision to donate her organs. Richard said doctors told him it could help as many as 90 other people.

He later said his daughter had “always wanted to be TikTok famous” and had been “a giver her whole life.” Richard said Leah had taken part in the Benadryl challenge several times since around Christmas, and that he only learned about the trend from his ex-wife shortly before Leah’s collapse.

A Father’s Warning

Since Leah’s death, Richard has been direct about what he wants other parents to take from it. “I just want everybody to be aware to where they can educate their kids,” he told KSNT. “But these challenges are just silly, and they need to be educated so it don’t happen again.”

He has also pointed to a gap in how easily teenagers can buy the medication. In one video, Richard and Leah’s older sister visited a store to see whether a clerk would sell Benadryl to a minor without checking identification. The clerk began the sale before Richard stepped in and stopped it, telling the employee that kids were “overdosing on that” and that his daughter had just died from it.

The Benadryl challenge is not new, and the FDA first warned about it in 2020; it has been linked to other deaths since, including a 13-year-old boy in Ohio in 2023. Fort Worth Children’s Hospital in Texas reported more than 100 emergency room visits tied to Benadryl overdoses over a recent six-month span.

Both TikTok and YouTube say they actively work against the trend. TikTok said searches for “Benadryl challenge” are redirected to its Community Guidelines and substance use support resources, and that it does not surface videos linked to known dangerous challenges. YouTube said it maintains “strict, long-standing policies prohibiting content that encourages dangerous challenges that risk serious injury or death.”

None of that came in time for Leah. Her father’s message now is simple: talk to your kids before a trend like this reaches them, not after.