[2025 - 2026 Semester 1 Official Meeting: Meeting 4]

Date: 18 September 2025, Thursday

Duration: 15:10 - 15:55

Topic: Therapeutic Gases in Medicine

In today’s science club meeting, Yeeun Boo did her TMI research presentation. She prepared information about helium suicide. Helium is a colorless, odorless gas that is easy to get from things like balloons, so it’s often used in suicides. According to a research paper by Anna Carfora about helium suicide, there was a 17-year-old girl who was found dead in her room with a plastic bag over her head after inhaling helium. The result of the autopsy showed that, on the outside, the victim had some signs like bleeding in the eyes, facial hemorrhages, pressure marks, and typical signs of lack of oxygen, but no major organ damage was found. However, the gas analysis showed helium levels far above the normal 0.0005% found in gas samples, proving that a lethal exposure to helium had occurred to the victim. From this, the researchers found that in helium suicides, the victim usually feels little pain because there’s no struggle or choking. They also found that it’s hard to determine the cause of death from the autopsy alone, and precise gas analysis is needed.

After Yeeun’s TMI presentation, we read the article about Cardiocerebrovascular diseases (CCVDs). From the article, we learned that helium, because it is light and chemically stable, can be used to relieve breathing problems (heliox), prevent decompression sickness, and serve as a safe gas in surgery, while also showing protective effects on cells, the heart, and the brain, suggesting its potential role in protecting against cardiocerebrovascular.

After reading the article, we took some time to go over the answers to the questions we had asked the professors last week and to reflect on what further topics we would like to explore.

Writtten by Yeuun Boo

Pictures taken by Yeuun Boo