An 11-month-old Kenosha boy died two days before his first birthday after biting into a balloon at a trunk-or-treat event, according to his mother, who says the toy came undone and lodged in his throat. Kisha Avita-Wilson said she was with her family at the Oct. 24 event when her son, Don’Vyaire Avita-Mays, grabbed and bit a balloon that then shot its tied-up end into the bottom of his esophagus.
Avita-Wilson described the moments that followed as catastrophic, telling NBC Chicago that her son “turned blue immediately and went into cardiac arrest.” She said she tried to save him herself before paramedics arrived: “I performed CPR … I stuck my fingers down his throat.” As detailed by the same report, emergency responders also attempted to clear the obstruction, having “stuck the tube down his throat and the pliers down his throat.”
Despite those efforts, Don’Vyaire did not survive, dying just two days shy of what would have been his first birthday, People reports. His mother had taken her two older daughters along to the family Halloween event when the incident occurred, according to the outlet.
A Mother Hospitalized While Mourning
The tragedy unfolded while Avita-Wilson was 30 weeks pregnant, and she remained hospitalized afterward, the NBC affiliate's report notes. Per a GoFundMe post from her aunt, who is also her adoptive mother, Avita-Wilson was hospitalized due to early contractions and premature dilation following her son's death, according to People's reporting on the fundraiser.
The family set up the fundraiser to help cover Don’Vyaire's funeral expenses, remembering him, per the GoFundMe message cited by People, as a handsome boy with an infectious laugh and a smile that could light up any room. The post also asked for prayers for Kisha, her daughters, and her unborn child.
Event Details Still Unclear
A free Kenosha YMCA Trunk or Treat event was scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 24, from 10 a.m. to noon in the YMCA parking lot at 701 4th Avenue, according to a listing on Kenosha.com, which noted the event required no registration and was open to the entire community. It is not established whether this was the specific event the family attended.
Avita-Wilson has since become an advocate for balloon safety, telling NBC Chicago that parents should be cautious about giving balloons to children at all. She has called for balloons to stop being sold, marketed to children, and produced, and said she believes existing warnings about the risks are insufficient.
Why Balloons Pose Outsized Risk to Young Children
Medical experts have long flagged balloons as uniquely dangerous for infants and toddlers. Even pieces of broken balloons pose a serious potential choking hazard, according to St. Louis Children's Hospital, because the material can be sucked into the throat and lungs. The hospital explains that uninflated or broken balloon fragments can stretch and mold to a child's throat, making it impossible to breathe, and recommends that latex balloons not be given to children younger than 8.
Most balloon-related accidents involve children under 6, though older kids can still be endangered by chewing or sucking on them, per the same hospital resource. A pediatric emergency medicine specialist told CBS News that balloons are among the most common objects involved in fatal choking accidents in children. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has similarly warned that children under eight can choke or suffocate on uninflated or broken balloons, urging adult supervision and that broken balloons be discarded immediately.
Other families have faced similar heartbreak. CBS News reported on a 9-month-old Indianapolis boy named Justin who died after choking on a balloon, and separately detailed a case in which a stray water balloon was brought inside while a mother and her four boys were filling balloons outdoors. Research cited in a paper on ScienceDirect documented five autopsy cases of children who died from accidental choking on latex balloons, underscoring the hazard pediatric specialists continue to warn about.
