Method Suicide by helium BALLOON

[Wannadie]

I read my medical files today and in there the cause of death of my best friend was mentioned: a helium balloon. She died a year ago of suicide. I think there are two options: they either mean the bag with balloon but that would be pretty weird or she actually committed suicide with a (helium) balloon. I tried to find information on Google about suicide with a helium balloon but I couldn't find anything. Any ideas on how you could die from helium using a balloon and not the way with the tank?

 

[Empty Smile]

I remember seeing something a while back about a teenage girl who died from inhaling helium to talk funny. Something happened and it caused her to die... I don't remember the details.

 

[worldexploder]

I remember seeing something a while back about a teenage girl who died from inhaling helium to talk funny. Something happened and it caused her to die... I don't remember the details.

It caused her to go into cardiac arrest due to some sort of preexisting heart condition.

 

[worldexploder]

Wouldn't work in my opinion. You would have to keep breathing pure helium once you passed out. This is why the exit bag and a tank is so important.

 

[Help_Me]

Worldexploder replied faster, but I will say it one more time : you need to breath with pure helium in isolated system (exit bag, full face diving mask). In case you're just inhaling it directly from the balloon, the only possible thing to reach is just slight feeling of unconsciousness. Ok, let's imagine you somehow managed to pass out that way. You'll just continue breathing with regular air and your brain will be provided with oxygen, so it won't even start losing brain cells. You will wake up sooner or later.

 

[Wannadie]

Worldexploder replied faster, but I will say it one more time : you need to breath with pure helium in isolated system (exit bag, full face diving mask). In case you're just inhaling it directly from the balloon, the only possible thing to reach is just slight feeling of unconsciousness. Ok, let's imagine you somehow managed to pass out that way. You'll just continue breathing with regular air and your brain will be provided with oxygen, so it won't even start losing brain cells. You will wake up sooner or later.

This is exactly what I was thinking. You could pass out from inhaling to much helium but once you passed out you'd start getting enough oxygen. But how on earth did she manage to die then? We were inpatient together so I was there when it happened (a few rooms away, not in her room obviously) and I can confirm she really was death, they couldn't even resuscitate her. They tried it at the ward, fire fighters came, police came, an ambulance came and no one managed to resuscitate her. They even tried it a couple more times in the hospital but it was pointless (oh god what I would have given for it to work..) I have no idea what she did exactly but it was definitely planned (I got a goodbye letter) and it worked, even though it was in the middle of the day and in an inpatient setting you really don't have that much time before someone will walk into your room. I don't have the answers to how it would have worked out, but it did. So it must be possible. I just can't make it logical in my head for the exact reason you mention.

 

[Trashcan]

You would have to continue breathing pure helium after you pass out. The balloon helium also isn't always pure. It's hard to find pure helium since there's a shortage of it. So it might be better to go for nitrogen or argon.

 

[Help_Me]

So it must be possible. I just can't make it logical in my head for the exact reason you mention.

This is a big mystery for me too ! I think there are 2 possible reasons for that : 1. She knew something we don't 2. She had some other problems with her health (probably preexisting heart condition, as Worldexploder mentioned), so she already knew she would die and it would work fine. And, like i said in other topic, life is a random and unpredictable thing. Maybe there was a slight 0.001 % chance to die for her and it just worked.

 

[tevati]

I remember seeing something a while back about a teenage girl who died from inhaling helium to talk funny. Something happened and it caused her to die... I don't remember the details.

I google this shit. The problem was a pressurized tank.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/teenage-girl-dies-inhaling-helium-party-222518777.html

 

[TiredHorse]

I google this shit. The problem was a pressurized tank.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/teenage-girl-dies-inhaling-helium-party-222518777.html

Looks like that was a different incident than what the OP is describing.

Still, it looks like short-term, non-asphyxiative exposure to He can be fatal if there is an underlying health condition or if everything lines up more perfectly than we here could hope to duplicate while attempting to ctb.

I'd wager you'd have a better chance of ctb by going out walking in a thunderstorm and counting on being struck by lightning.

 

[Wannadie]

This is a big mystery for me too ! I think there are 2 possible reasons for that : 1. She knew something we don't 2. She had some other problems with her health (probably preexisting heart condition, as Worldexploder mentioned), so she already knew she would die and it would work fine. And, like i said in other topic, life is a random and unpredictable thing. Maybe there was a slight 0.001 % chance to die for her and it just worked.

Hmm yes I think if she knew about a heart condition I would have known it too since we were best friends and I knew almost everything about her. If she had hospital appointments for her heart or anything like that I would have known. But maybe she had heart problems without knowing it but that made her succeed? It could be possible. I also read something online about hyperventilating for a while and then inhaling helium since your CO2 in your blood would already be lower before you even start asphyxiation. Maybe that would work, but that would mean that you'd basically die instantly after losing consciousness otherwise there would be enough time for your body to refill the oxygen. It's really a mystery to me...