A mother has tragically died after inhaling helium from a balloon while setting up for hr daughter’s first birthday party.

Faith Waterman Batistich, from Te Puke in New Zealand, died in a matter of seconds after inhaling helium while setting up for the party with her family in 2022.

Professor Timothy Schmidt, Head of the School of Chemistry at UNSW, told Yahoo News Australia that any gas mixture that does not contain oxygen can be fatal if inhaled, and issued a strong warning about partaking in the party trick.

“Helium is dangerous to inhale because it replaces the oxygen rich air in our lungs and rapidly leads to loss of oxygen from the body. This condition is known as hypoxia and can be fatal,” he said. “Breathing pure nitrogen would be just as dangerous.”

Faith’s family and friends were all laughing and taking turns inhaling the helium from the balloons, when one person suggested they breathe it in directly from the canister, Faith’s twin sister Eden Waterman told the New Zealand Herald.

As the 20-year-old went to inhale, someone else turned 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***’ and she dropped,” Eden recalled.

“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.”

She added that Faith “went blue” and was “gone instantly”.

Despite the efforts of the family and paramedics, Faith was unable to be revived.

Professor Schmidt said helium is not considered a dangerous chemical, but it is likely most people are unaware of the risks when inhaling it.

“It is used in diving tanks and in medicine. Helium is what we call a noble gas (or inert gas). It does not form chemical compounds or react chemically with the body,” he said.

“I had never heard of anyone dying from helium inhalation until now, so I would say that the dangers are definitely not well-known. I have done it… and never considered that I might replace all the O2 in my body with helium.”

Image credits: Facebook

Never miss a deal again - sign up now!

Connect with us: