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By JEFF BARNARD | Associated Press Wed, Feb 22, 2012
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.
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, and can block blood flow
to the brain, causing a stroke.
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.
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 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.
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."