Mom’s tragic warning after son, 8, dies from balloon on birthday

After her son was killed by a common birthday balloon, the boy’s mother is urging other parents not to buy these balloons for their children.

Joshua Dunbar was only 8, filled with energy and ideas, when he recently celebrated his birthday. There were balloons everywhere,

people wore party hats and all the good parts of aging another year filled the room. Only hours after everyone was laughing and smiling, tragedy showed up in an unexpected way.

He needed to do it at that point.

On April 27, 2024, he was found lying, unconscious, in his own bedroom. It looked like the number eight, written on a huge helium balloon, was hanging over his head.

With all the frantic work done by Joshua’s family and the paramedics as they raced to the hospital, Joshua’s heart could not be restored.

I went through a terrible trauma. You can’t shake off what happened. When you close your eyes, that’s all you notice, that’s all you listen to. You can hear people screaming and shouting, along with sirens.

You hear your doctor saying, “I am so sorry.” She felt the moment had come for him,” his mother Carly was quoted by the Mirror.

The next thing I saw was me holding his hand. I had both his hands and my dad did too and I told him, ‘son, if your angel wings are ready, then take them and go.’

Mummy and Daddy are alongside you, so we’ll always support you. That’s what she said to her son when he was ready to leave: ‘Just go in peace, son, because you had blue eyes like the ocean and a smile you hid when you knew it would annoy Grandad.’

Within that short space of time, he had left. It seemed as though he was waiting through those months for us to agree he could do it. I will never be able to get rid of these visions.

Suffocation

The coroner at Joshua’s death inquest declared that he had died as a result of being deprived of oxygen by the helium balloon.

Helium is harmless, but Rebello explained that it replaced the oxygen Joshua was breathing.

Since oxygen was denied to him by helium, he wasn’t able to live for more than a few minutes. On this terrible day, the commemoration started out as one of happiness.

Simply calling it a terrible accident, Rebello then asked, “People with compassion would wonder what he was up to.” It’s possible he did not know the balloon was empty or maybe he wanted to test if the helium could change his voice as it passed over his throat. I can’t be sure. Nobody knows.”

Douglas Thurtle added that a little boy was playing in his room when the tragedy occurred and that is why parents consider a child’s death to be their biggest fear.

Choose balloons that you pump with air for your party.

Shortly after her son died, Carly tweeted to demand a ban on helium-filled balloons.

Getting over losing a child when you are a parent cannot be fixed. Please do not make the mistake of buying your children helium balloons, as I have seen what can happen, she wrote on Facebook.

Since then, I’ve been upset that I bought that balloon and I long for no other family to suffer like ours did! Use air filled balloons for your decorations.”

By heart, I wouldn’t want any other child to die, nor would I want any other family to experience what we live with every day.

Carly wishes that Joshua’s death will have a positive impact, so she motivates others to keep their kids safe from what she didn’t recognize.

It’s so hard and things don’t get simpler over time. If my message encourages just three people to pass on a helium balloon, that’s one child spared from danger.

It’s all about keeping this from happening again and the way to do that is to give up buying helium balloons. If you want, get air plants! They’re as beautiful as real ones.