One Friday afternoon nine-year-old Daisy was dining at McDonald's with her mom, brother and grandmother when mealtime went from happy to unhappy in a blink of an eye.
The young girl was tasked with watching her brother while her mother, Kelly Milne, went up to place their order. Suddenly, everyone stopped dead in their tracks after a loud bang came from the back of the room.
"Daisy must have been standing with her back to the area where the sauces are placed and the next thing I heard was a bang," explained Kelly. "I looked round and she was slumped in the corner -she had collapsed."
The 29-year-old mother rushed to her daughter's side and noticed that she had fainted and her "eyes were rolling."
The restaurant's staff came to Daisy's aid and helped resuscitate her after she'd been unconscious for about 5 minutes.
"The staff took Daisy outside to get some fresh air. They dealt with it brilliantly," a relieved Kelly told The Sun.
So what could have caused this frightening experience?
Prior to the incident Daisy was entertaining her brother by using a helium balloon to change the pitch of her voice. She must have taken in a bit too much of the gas which caused her to temporarily lose consciousness.
"Daisy has never had an episode like this before so we can only put it down to sucking the helium out of the balloon," said Kelly.
The mom then took to social media to warn parents about dangers of inhaling helium. Click on the next page to find out how this common party trick could be fatal.
There are a lot of things we do as kids and even as grown ups that bring us joy but aren't necessarily good for us and sucking helium from a balloon is one of them.
We've done it at parties, our friends have too and so did Jimmy Fallon on his late night show but it doesn't mean we should keep it up.
Helium-related injuries aren't a common occurrence but they do happen to many people. When Kelly posted her PSA online, others who had experiences a similar reaction came forward.
"When I put a status up online advising what had happened another person commented and said their brother had a similar reaction."
While Daisy's story has a happy ending, not everyone has been so lucky. In 2012, a 14-year-old girl died after inhaling helium at a party she was attending with friends and in 2006, two college students were found dead in a giant helium balloon in Florida.
Although helium is non-toxic and is relatively safe to use under most circumstances, breathing in excessive amounts of the gas can be very dangerous. It can cut off one's oxygen supply which leads to shortness of breath, choking and even death.
Dr. Mark Morocco, associate professor of emergency medicine at the Ronald Reagan Medical Center in Los Angeles told Fox News that the effects of helium on the body is comparable to what happens when a scuba driver surfaces from the water too quickly. When the gas gets into the bloodstream, it can tear through a blood vessel and cause a stroke.
So next time you or someone you know reaches for that helium filled balloon, think twice about the consequences. Not only are you contributing to the rapid depletion of the non-renewable gas, you're also putting your life at risk.
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