Mum, 20, dies at her daughter’s birthday party after inhaling helium from balloons goes horribly wrong
Plus, exactly what happens to your body when you inhale helium—and why it can be life-threatening
A YOUNG mum tragically died after inhaling helium at her daughter’s first birthday party.
Faith Waterman Batistich had been breathing from helium-filled balloons to make her voice sound high-pitched when she made a fatal mistake.
The 20-year-old, from Te Puke, New Zealand, collapsed and was pronounced dead an hour later, despite desperate attempts by her family to revive her.
The mum-of-two was a week shy of celebrating her 21st birthday with her twin sister Eden.
Her sister recalled how party guests had been inhaling from the helium balloons that had been inflated from the canister.
“Everyone jumped on the bandwagon like, ‘oh, that’s so funny’,” Eden told the .
A guest suggested inhaling directly from the helium canister.
Faith was initially reluctant to join in but after some persuasion, began inhaling the colourless, odourless gas from the canister.
All while this was happening, a guest decided to turn up the flow on the canister.
“It went too fast and kind of shot her in the back of the neck. Her last words were literally, ‘Oh s***!”‘ Eden said.
“I was just, like, in shock. I kind of just froze and it was like, ‘what the f***, what am I seeing? Like, is this for real?’ I thought she was putting it on at the start”.
Faith “went blue instantly,” and her mum Diane Waterman and cousin spent 45 minutes desperately trying to resuscitate her while waiting for an ambulance to arrive.
Paramedics then spent another 20 minutes to resuscitate Faith, and gave her four shots of adrenaline in an attempt to restart her heart.
“Nothing got her back,” Diane said.
‘Unaware of inherent dangers’
Eden opened up about the tragedy after the coronial inquest findings into her sister’s death were released last week.
“She was bright and bubbly, just happy. Loud and obnoxious,” Eden said.
“You could hear her from freaking Africa, you will literally hear her before you see her.
“Just her being around was the best thing ever…there was no dull moment.”
Coroner Louella Dunn found that Faith was “unaware of the inherent dangers of inhaling helium.
“Her death was unexpected and tragic,” she said.
The report on her cause of death noted she would have died rapidly, “she didn’t suffer.”
“It can be considered funny and entertaining in a party environment to inhale helium which produces a high-pitched noise similar to that of a chipmunk,” coroner Louella added.
Inhaling helium: is it really that dangerous?
You inhale helium from a balloon, and almost as if by magic, you sound like a cartoon chipmunk.
Harmless as it may seem, though, inhaling helium can be dangerous — deadly, in fact.
There are numerous case reports of serious injury and even death caused by helium inhalation.
What happens?
When you inhale helium, it displaces oxygen. This means that as you inhale, your body is only getting helium.
Oxygen plays a role in every function of your body.
Anytime you don’t get enough of it, you’re putting yourself at risk.
Many of the risks are the same as with other inhalants, including:
- Nausea
- Lightheadedness
- Passing out
The majority of serious health issues and deaths related to helium inhalation involve inhaling helium from a pressurised tank.
These are the same tanks used to fill helium balloons at events or party supply stores.
Tanks not only hold a lot more helium than your everyday party balloon, but they also release the helium with much more force.
The more pure helium you inhale, the longer your body is without crucial oxygen.
Breathing in pure helium can cause death by asphyxiation in just minutes.
Inhaling helium from a pressurised tank can also cause a gas or air embolism, which is a bubble that becomes trapped in a blood vessel, blocking it.
The blood vessels can rupture and bleed.
Finally, the helium can also enter your lungs with enough force to cause your lungs to rupture.
She said: “This is a known party pleaser.
“Many people are, however, unaware of the potential threats of inhaling helium in such a situation.
“What may seem like harmless fun is potentially life-threatening.”
‘Just don’t do it’
Helium is much lighter than air, which causes sound waves to travel faster and amplifies the higher frequencies in the voice, giving it the ‘chipmunk’ effect.
However, inhaling too much helium can displace oxygen in the lungs, leading to low blood oxygen levels, or hypoxia.
This can result in serious harm and, in extreme cases, can be fatal.
Coroner Dunn said the community needed to be aware of the dangers of inhaling helium.
“These threats are heightened when inhaling pressurised helium from a cylinder/canister given the amount that can enter the body due to the pressurised gas,” she said.
Two years after her death, Faith family are traumatised every time they see helium-inflated balloons in public.
Her sister issued a strong warning to anyone else tempted to take the party trick up another level.
“Just don’t do it,” Eden said.