Jamie and Carly Dunbar have shared their story after their eight-year-old son, Joshua, tragically died on his birthday after inhaling helium from a balloon.
For many, helium balloons are seen as harmless fun. Some people even puncture the balloon near the knot and breathe in the gas to create a high-pitched voice.
But warnings have increasingly been raised about the serious risks of inhaling helium, with a growing number of reports describing fatal incidents linked to the practice.
Joshua’s parents say he was out of their sight for only a short period before they found him in his bedroom in the UK.
On May 20, Jamie and Carly appeared on This Morning to urge others to take helium balloon safety seriously.
They said they had bought a foil balloon in the shape of the number eight to mark Joshua’s birthday.
After returning home, they explained that Joshua wanted a little time alone and took the balloon upstairs to his room.
What followed, they said, happened in a matter of minutes—between Joshua going up, Carly checking in for a brief conversation, and Jamie arriving shortly after.
“He wanted some quiet time in his room cause he liked quiet time, didn’t he? So he went up to his room,” Jamie explained, with Carly adding: “He took the balloon up to his room with him.”
Carly told the programme she spoke with Joshua and remembered him sitting quietly on his bed with the balloon while watching TV.
“I told him his dad would be up, and we’re going to put all his presents away. And then his dad came up literally minutes later,” Carly shared on the show.
“And then [I came] up and found him. At first, I’d seen the balloon half deflated,” Jamie said. “It took me a split second to realize Joshua was lying down with the balloon over his head. So I had to get him off his bed and physically rip the balloon off him.”
“We don’t know exactly how the balloon has managed to get over his head,” Carly revealed, ‘but from the manner where he was sitting in his room, he was nice and calm.’
She suggested he may have opened the balloon by biting it, allowing helium to be inhaled and displace oxygen in his lungs.
“And then knocked him deeply unconscious, which then allowed the foil balloon to cover his head,” she added.
Carly also described the terror of the moment, saying she screamed for neighbors to come and help.
Paramedics arrived soon after and took over CPR efforts from Jamie.
Despite those attempts, Joshua could not be revived.
Now, the couple say they’re determined to warn other families about the potential dangers of helium balloons, stating: “But we just want to get it out there, the message, the awareness, even if that doesn’t happen, to make people aware that the dangers of them. Because we never knew. We’d always bought balloons for our other children’s birthdays before.”