MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) — The autopsy on a 14-year-old Medford girl who died Saturday after inhaling helium at a party shows she died of an air embolism.
Deputy State Medical Examiner Dr. James Olson ruled the death of Ashley Long accidental. Inhaling the gas from a pressurized canister caused air bubbles that entered her blood stream, causing the fatal blockage.
The Mail Tribune reports (http://is.gd/E7W1kj ) the eighth-grade student also was drinking with several other teens at an apartment.
The resident, 27-year-old Katherine McAloon, has been charged with delivering alcohol and marijuana to minors.
