Junior high student dies after drinking and inhaling helium
#21
(02-22-2012, 08:43 AM)tvguy Wrote:
(02-21-2012, 09:45 PM)chuck white Wrote: The alcohol and pot didn't kill her.

Who said it did?


It was kids playing with a tank of pressurized air.
Pressurized air contains a lot of energy and can be dangerous.
Even low pressure air lines used around shops and factories can be hazardous.
If you hit an open sore with a airhose and you can peel your skin right off.

Air?? Anyway I don't think anybody thinks the pot or alcohol killed this girl. The fact is that this women provided booze and drugs to underage kids and this tragedy occurred under her watch.
I don't know how high on alcohol or drugs this girl was or the idiot who pressured her to inhale helium from a pressurized tank but the adult who apparently allowed all of this to go on bears some responsibility.


True, but air from a pressurized tank could have done the same. It didn't have to be helium.
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#22
(02-22-2012, 09:20 AM)Tiamat Wrote:
(02-22-2012, 08:43 AM)tvguy Wrote:
(02-21-2012, 09:45 PM)chuck white Wrote: The alcohol and pot didn't kill her.

Who said it did?


It was kids playing with a tank of pressurized air.
Pressurized air contains a lot of energy and can be dangerous.
Even low pressure air lines used around shops and factories can be hazardous.
If you hit an open sore with a airhose and you can peel your skin right off.

Air?? Anyway I don't think anybody thinks the pot or alcohol killed this girl. The fact is that this women provided booze and drugs to underage kids and this tragedy occurred under her watch.
I don't know how high on alcohol or drugs this girl was or the idiot who pressured her to inhale helium from a pressurized tank but the adult who apparently allowed all of this to go on bears some responsibility.


True, but air from a pressurized tank could have done the same. It didn't have to be helium.

Maybe not but based on what I read and posted below it appears to me that an embolism from helium could be more likely and more deadly than from just air?





Gas embolism: helium is more lethal than carbon dioxide.
Wolf JS Jr, Carrier S, Stoller ML.
Source

Department of Urology, University of California School of Medicine, San Francisco.
Abstract

The search for alternatives to carbon dioxide (CO2) for insufflation during laparoscopy has included the consideration of helium. Helium is attractive because it is noncombustible and has no pharmacologic effects. Unfortunately, it is also relatively insoluble in blood, which potentially could exacerbate a venous gas embolism. We performed rapid intravenous injections of CO2 and helium into 4 dogs in amounts ranging from 5 to 10 ml of gas per kilogram body weight. Recovery after CO2 injection always occurred within 1 min. In 4 of 6 instances, the helium injection was fatal. Our results confirm that helium is more lethal than CO2 when injected intravenously. This implies that the use of helium for insufflation during laparoscopy might place patients at greater risk for adverse effects should venous gas embolism occur.
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#23
Well, it's sad. Her grandmother is going through her closets, smelling her granddaughters clothes.
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#24
(02-22-2012, 10:04 PM)Tiamat Wrote: Well, it's sad. Her grandmother is going through her closets, smelling her granddaughters clothes.

Trying to get high, from the smell of the marijuana smoke?

Eek!
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#25
(02-21-2012, 09:45 PM)chuck white Wrote: The alcohol and pot didn't kill her.
It was kids playing with a tank of pressurized air.
Pressurized air contains a lot of energy and can be dangerous.
Even low pressure air lines used around shops and factories can be hazardous.
If you hit an open sore with a airhose and you can peel your skin right off.

Although, Chuck, that doesn't dismiss that the woman apparently provided access to the other items.

Edit.....sorry, didn't go far enough ahead to see that others had basically the same comment.

As an add....why the hell can't we delete a post here if no one has responded?

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#26
(02-22-2012, 10:41 PM)chuck white Wrote:
(02-22-2012, 10:04 PM)Tiamat Wrote: Well, it's sad. Her grandmother is going through her closets, smelling her granddaughters clothes.

Trying to get high, from the smell of the marijuana smoke?

Eek!

Have you never lost anyone, Chuck? When you lose someone, finding their scent on their clothes is a precious thing. You'll do anything to hang on to it. But it fades in time.Crying
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#27
(02-22-2012, 10:42 PM)imaham Wrote: Although, Chuck, that doesn't dismiss that the woman apparently provided access to the other items.

True, but she should be punished, no more then what normally she would face.
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#28
(02-22-2012, 10:42 PM)imaham Wrote:
(02-21-2012, 09:45 PM)chuck white Wrote: The alcohol and pot didn't kill her.
It was kids playing with a tank of pressurized air.
Pressurized air contains a lot of energy and can be dangerous.
Even low pressure air lines used around shops and factories can be hazardous.
If you hit an open sore with a airhose and you can peel your skin right off.

Although, Chuck, that doesn't dismiss that the woman apparently provided access to the other items.

Yes... I'm interested in the toxicology reports. If she had liquor and/or marijuana in her system... she might have been talked into something she normally would not have done had she been sober. IMO... the adult in charge would then be responsible for the girls death.
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#29
There was no adult at the party. All we raise here are para-adults. Cannon fodder, and zealots is what we deliver the world.
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#30
(02-22-2012, 10:46 PM)Scrapper Wrote:
(02-22-2012, 10:42 PM)imaham Wrote:
(02-21-2012, 09:45 PM)chuck white Wrote: The alcohol and pot didn't kill her.
It was kids playing with a tank of pressurized air.
Pressurized air contains a lot of energy and can be dangerous.
Even low pressure air lines used around shops and factories can be hazardous.
If you hit an open sore with a airhose and you can peel your skin right off.

Although, Chuck, that doesn't dismiss that the woman apparently provided access to the other items.



Yes... I'm interested in the toxicology reports. If she had liquor and/or marijuana in her system... she might have been talked into something she normally would not have done had she been sober. IMO... the adult in charge would then be responsible for the girls death.

Uhmmm, positive toxicology or not, the adult would still be in charge and responsible. It doesn't matter. It matters to the child who might still have been able to say no, but not to those liable. It only matters in terms of what more charges will be pressed.

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#31
http://www.kpic.com/news/My-daughter-did...71083.html

'My daughter didn't want to do it. It was peer pressure'

[Image: 120222helium_death.jpg+%281%29.jpg]
Loriann Earp, center, cries with her husband, Justin Earp, on Wednesday. Feb. 22, 2012, in their home in Eagle Point, Ore., as they view photos of their daughter, Ashley Long, 14, who died after inhaling helium at a party. The Earps hope their daughter's death will help spread the word about the dangers of inhaling helium.


[Image: ashley+long+3.jpg]
Ashley Long

[Image: 120222helium_death.jpg.jpg]
This photo provided by the Jackson County Sheriff's Office shows Katherine McAloon. Police have arrested McAloon on charges of providing alcohol and marijuana to minors.

EAGLE POINT, Ore. (AP) — Last weekend, 14-year-old Ashley Long told her parents she was going to a slumber party.

But instead of spending the night watching videos and eating popcorn two blocks away, she piled into a car with a bunch of her friends and rode to a condo in Medford, Ore., where police say the big sister of one of her friends was throwing a party with booze and marijuana.

After drinking on the drive, and downing more drinks in the condo, it came time for Ashley to take her turn on a tank of helium that everyone else was inhaling to make their voices sound funny.

"That helium tank got going around," said Ashley's stepfather, Justin Earp, who learned what happened from talking to Ashley's friends at the party. "It got to my daughter. My daughter didn't want to do it. It was peer pressure. They put a mask up to her face. They said it would be OK. 'It's not gonna hurt you. It'll just make you laugh and talk funny.'"

Instead, she passed out and later died at a hospital, the result of an obstruction in a blood vessel caused by inhaling helium from a pressurized tank.

It's a common party trick — someone sucks in helium to give their voice a cartoon character sound.

But the death exposes the rare but real dangers of inhaling helium, especially from a pressurized tank. The gas is also commonly seen in suicide kits — mail-order hoods sold out of Oregon and elsewhere that can be attached to a helium tank by people who want to kill themselves. In those cases, the helium crowds out the oxygen, asphyxiating a person.

For Ashley, the pressurized tank forced the helium into her lungs, her blood vessels and her brain, her father said,

Dr. Mark Morocco, associate professor of emergency medicine at the Ronald Reagan Medical Center in Los Angeles, said what happens is similar to when a scuba diver surfaces too quickly. A gas bubble gets into the bloodstream, perhaps through some kind of tear in a blood vessel. If it is a vein, the bubble will stay in the lungs. If it is an artery, it can block the flow of oxygen-laden blood to the brain, causing a stroke. If there is a hole in the heart, the bubble can go from a vein to an artery and then to the brain.

Morocco said the other risk of using helium is apoxia, which can cause wooziness, but it's not lethal.

Death from inhaling helium is so rare that the American Association Poison Control Centers lumps it in with other gases, such as methane and propane. Only three deaths from simple asphyxiants were recorded in 2010, said spokeswoman Loreeta Canton.

It's important to remind kids that ingesting any substance — for the sake of getting high or just changing their voices — can be dangerous, said Frank Pegueros, executive director of DARE, Drug Abuse Resistance Education.

Pegueros said the first defense is for parents to tell their kids about the dangers of certain substances. He said kids need to also ask themselves whether going along with the crowd at a party is worth it.

"Peer pressure is a very potent force," he said. "We've all gone through it growing up."

"It's getting somebody to pause and think and evaluate the situation and determine, is this something that's going to have a bad consequence," he said.

Police have arrested 27-year-old Katherine McAloon, who lived in the condo, on charges of providing alcohol and marijuana to minors. Four men who were at the party have been questioned by police, but have not been charged, said Medford Police Lt. Mike Budreau. More charges may be filed after police turn over their evidence to the district attorney.

Ashley was a goofy, nerdy eighth-grader who struggled with her weight, was just starting to notice boys, got top grades in school, had posters of Justin Bieber all over her room and wanted to grow up to be a marine biologist, said her mom, Loriann Earp. The family moved from Grants Pass, Ore., to Eagle Point about a year ago, and Ashley had just gotten over the difficulty of adjusting to eighth grade in a new school.

Justin Earp said the kids had four wine coolers each in the car, and four mixed drinks at the condo, before they started passing around the helium.

Police said it was an 8-gallon canister, the kind you can buy at many stores. The kids were taking hits directly from the tank, not putting the gas into a balloon first.

When Ashley passed out, someone tried CPR. Then they called 911. Paramedics tried to revive her and took her to the hospital.

"About 11:30 we got a phone call from police saying they were doing CPR on our daughter," said Justin Earp.

At the hospital, they were told that Ashley had died.

Her family has set up a foundation, Ashley's Hope, to spread the word about the dangers of inhaling helium.

Loriann Earp feels like her daughter was stolen from her.

"My whole chest is collapsed and my heart is broken," she said through sobs. "I don't understand."
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#32
This is being covered on The Today Show this morning.
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#33
There are no words to comfort this unfortunate family. We can only hope for awareness as to how dangerous it can be to inhale from a helium tank you can pick up at a balloon store. Jeez, this is just awful.
Yes, the 27-year old woman should be held to account. People have to realize that it isn't funny or cool to allow minors access to drugs and alcohol.
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