A 7-year-old girl in Tennessee di*ed after suffocating on her birthday balloons, her mother said.
Channa Kelly said that on September 27, her daughter Alexandra Hope Kelly turned 7. Kelly told me that she bought a 34-inch Mylar #7 balloon filled with helium and a few latex balloons for her daughter’s party.
“As a parent, I was always aware that latex balloons could choke a child, but I had no idea that these very large Mylar helium-filled balloons posed such a risk,” Kelly wrote on Facebook.
Alexandra asked if she could pop her birthday balloons on October 1. The #7 balloon was one of them. She said she went to her room to sleep while her daughter played. She went back into the living room and saw Alexandra lying on the floor with the Mylar balloon over her head. She wasn’t moving.
Kelly wrote, “On October 1, my whole world fell apart around me because I didn’t know how dangerous these kinds of balloons are.” “No one knows for sure if she di*ed of helium poisoning or suffocation.”
Kelly said she is telling the story so that someone else doesn’t have to go through the same terrible thing.
The mother of three said, “I hope and pray that this will stop and save the lives of other children.” “I don’t want anyone else to feel the terrible pain and loss that leaving a child brings.”
Kelly said that her daughter was “full of curiosity” and that she liked sewing, swimming, and hanging out with her cousins and friends.
Her de*ath notice said, “She loved to sing, dance, and make her mother laugh.” “She was fun to talk to and her lively conversation could make anyone smile.” Alex loved doing arts and crafts projects and was always coming up with new ideas.
Friends of the family have set up a GoFundMe to help pay for the funeral.
