Kenosha mother says 11-month-old died after balloon piece lodged in his esophagus at trunk-or-treat

A Wisconsin family is mourning an 11-month-old this week after what his mother describes as a split-second accident at a Halloween event.

Kisha Avita-Wilson says her son, known to the family as "Baby Don," died two days before his first birthday. On Oct. 24, the family was at a trunk-or-treat gathering in Kenosha. Her two older daughters had been given balloon animals.

What the mother says happened

Avita-Wilson told NBC Chicago that the family was working to keep the balloons away from the baby.

"We were keeping the balloons away from Baby Don, and one of the balloons came undone," she said. "He grabbed it, and he bit it, and when he bit it, it shot the tied-up part into the bottom of his esophagus."

She pulled him out of his car seat and started CPR. "I stuck my fingers down his throat," she said. The person with her tried the same thing.

By her account, the baby "turned blue immediately and went into cardiac arrest."

An ambulance arrived quickly, she said. Emergency responders tried to clear the obstruction with a tube and a pair of pliers. They could not save him.

"It was nothing that we could have done to save my baby boy," Avita-Wilson said. "I don't like to talk about him in past tense, but he isn't here with us any longer."

The details of the incident come from her own account. This week's reports carry no statements from police, the responders or a medical examiner.

A second pregnancy under strain

Avita-Wilson is 30 weeks pregnant and remains in the hospital. According to a GoFundMe page set up by the family, the stress of the loss brought on early contractions and premature dilation.

Her aunt, Mary Lott, wrote the fundraiser description. It calls Baby Don "a handsome little boy whose laugh was infectious, whose smile could light up any room, and who was loved by so many."

"We ask that everyone continues to pray for Kisha, her girls and especially her unborn child," Lott wrote.

The fundraiser is meant to cover funeral and memorial costs. The memorial is still being planned.

The demand: pull balloons off the market

Avita-Wilson wants more than a warning to parents. She wants the product itself gone.

"Balloons have warnings on them, but that is not enough," she said. "They should stop selling them. Stop marketing them to kids. Stop producing them."

That is a sweeping ask. Nothing in the accounts of the case shows a regulator, a manufacturer or a lawmaker responding to it. It comes from a mother in the worst loss of her life, and she is entitled to say it.

She also says she wants parents to be more careful about giving children balloons. Her own account is of a family that was already being careful. She says they kept the balloons away from the baby, and one came undone anyway.

Where things stand

The family went public by Oct. 30, and the story spread widely over the Halloween weekend.

Accounts of the case disagree on the date of the death. Several reports, citing NBC Chicago, give Oct. 24, which they describe as the day of the trunk-or-treat event and two days before the baby's first birthday. One republished version of the story gives Oct. 26. Spellings of the baby's name also vary across accounts, so the family's own fundraiser page is the best place to confirm it.

The immediate questions are personal ones. Avita-Wilson is still hospitalized at 30 weeks pregnant. The family has not announced a date for Baby Don's memorial. Whether her call for a balloon ban gets any official hearing is unanswered, since no agency or lawmaker has said anything about it.