A grieving family has detailed how a common party trick resulted into a young mother’s death in the hope that another tragedy can be avoided.
Faith Waterman Batistich, 20, collapsed as if she was ‘shot in the neck’ after she inhaled from a helium cannister at her daughter’s first birthday party in the New Zealand town of Te Puke in September 2022.
The mother-of-two had been inhaling from helium filled balloons to make her voice sound high-pitched when she made the fatal mistake of trying this directly from the cannister and collapsed almost instantly.
Ms Batistich was pronounced dead a hour later, despite desperate attempts by her family to revive her.
She 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 cannister.
‘Everyone jumped on the bandwagon like, ‘oh, that’s so funny’,’ Ms Waterman told the New Zealand Herald.
A guest suggested inhaling directly from the helium canister, which was made by n wholesale party supplier Alpan.
Ms Batistich was initially reluctant to join in but after some persuasion, began inhaling the colourless, odourless gas from the cannister.
A guest turned up the canister’s nozzle to increase the flow of helium, a mistake that had tragic consequences.
‘It went too fast and kind of shot her in the back of the neck. Her last words were literally, ‘Oh s***!’ Ms Waterman 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.
Ms Batistich’s mum and a cousin spent 45 minutes trying to resuscitate her while waiting for the ambulance to arrive.
Paramedics then spent another 20 minutes to resuscitate Ms Batistich and gave her four shots of adrenaline.
‘Nothing got her back,’ Ms Waterman said.
She said there was never a dull moment whenever her bright, bubbly and loud sister was around.
Ms Waterman opened up about the tragedy after the coronial inquest findings into her sister’s death were released last week.
Coroner Louella Dunn found that Ms Batistich was ‘unaware of the inherent dangers of inhaling helium. Her death was unexpected and tragic’.
‘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,’ the Coroner 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.’
Helium is much lighter than air, which causes sound waves to travel faster and amplifying the higher frequency in the voice, which is why inhaling it produces the ‘chipmunk’ voice.
However if inhaled in excessive amounts, it can displace oxygen in the lungs, leading to low blood oxygen, otherwise known as hypoxia, which can cause damage and ultimately death.
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,’ Coroner Dunn said.
The coroner also recommended that warning labels on cannisters be more obvious.
The cannister that Ms Batistich inhaled from had a warning label.
‘Do not place nozzle in mouth or nose for any reason. Doing so can damage lungs and other body parts which can result in serious personal injury or death,’ the warning said.
Coroner Dunn judged the warning was ‘in very small print’.
‘I recommend that the warning should be in bold print at the top of the canister stating: ‘Do not inhale – risk of serious personal injury or death’,’ she ruled.
Daily Mail has contacted Alpen for comment.
Two years after her death, Ms Batistich’s 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,’ Ms Waterman said.