A grieving mother has described the horrific moment she discovered her eight-year-old son lifeless after inhaling a helium balloon. Carly Dunbar's son Joshua tragically passed away on his eighth birthday in what has been termed 'the most tragic of accidents'. The young boy was found unresponsive in his bedroom with a number eight-shaped balloon covering his head on April 27, 2024.
The Incident
After being rushed to hospital, a post-mortem examination concluded that Joshua's death was 'consistent with asphyxia involving a helium balloon'. Speaking about the heartbreaking incident, Carly and her husband Jamie appeared on Tuesday's episode of This Morning, hosted by Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard.
Describing the moments before the tragedy, Carly said: 'He went upstairs and took the balloon with him. I came up after him and had a little chat with him; he was just sat up on his bed with the balloon, watching the TV - nice and calm.' Visibly emotional, she continued: 'I told him his dad would be up and going to put all his presents away. And then his dad came up, literally minutes later.'
Jamie interjected: 'I said bye to my dad at night and then came up and found him. At first, I'd seen the balloon, half-deflated. It took me a split second to realise Joshua was lying down with the balloon over his head, so I had to get him off his bed and physically ripped the balloon off him.'
The Aftermath
Carly, choked with emotion, said: 'The pain is still as raw as the minute I heard Jamie scream when he found him. I just, you know, when you have that feeling as a parent, I just feel like that scream will never leave me.' She added: 'I'd run in the bedroom, and I'd just seen Joshua quite, well, lifeless. I've just panicked and run outside screaming at the neighbours for help.'
'So the ambulance paramedics came in and worked on Joshua in the house. Then the air ambulance came... But he was so poorly he had to go by the fastest route. So it was like a big rush of all doctors and nurses, and they were all around his bed trying to do CPR, and I'm trying to bring him back. They were amazing, they tried their best, but we just had to say goodbye to him.'
Campaign for Change
Carly and Jamie are now launching a campaign to try to prohibit the sale of helium balloons. Jamie explained: 'We want to get it out there. The message, the awareness. Even if that doesn't happen, just to make people aware that the danger is often because we never know. It'd always put balloons or other children's birthdays before.'
This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV1 and ITVX.
