A tragic accident, but sadly one the country had seen before. Those were the findings of a coronial inquest into the death of 14-year-old Faith Wignall, who died on 13 February, 2022, in Whakatāne.
Faith had been inhaling butane gas with a friend that evening when she started shaking on the ground and foam began coming out of her mouth.
Faith and her friend had bought deodorant from the local dairy in order to inhale the gas. Her friend told police they had experimented with huffing "a lot" in the past, when no one else was home.
The coroner found that butane toxicity led to Faith's death. Butane hurts the body because it displaces oxygen and disrupts the natural way the heart beats.
Faith's mother, Ngaroma Wignall, said her daughter was a special person.
"Pretty much anything she could put her mind to, she could do."
She said most people who knew Faith spoke highly of her.
"She just had so much going for her, and to have it come to a sudden end like this... there's just no words to describe it really."
She said Faith was loved by lots of people and her death had stopped many other local children from experimenting with huffing.
"Faith was fearless. I guess she felt like she was invincible. And those two things, they don't couple well when you want to try stuff like this because you think it's not going to happen to you, or you think nothing can go wrong, or 'I'm going to be okay', and that's what she would have been thinking and it just wasn't the case."
Coroner Rachael Schmidt-McCleave said Faith's death was a tragic accident.
This was not the first-time a young person in New Zealand had died after huffing gas.
In 2013, Coroner Sue Johnson made recommendations following different inquests into the deaths of three young people from Christchurch who had died as a result of butane inhalation in a relatively short period of time.
"There have been findings from other coroners since the above which have referred to, and built upon, the recommendations and comments made. I refer, for example, to the finding of Coroner Cunninghame in 2020," said Coroner Schmidt-McCleave.
For this reason, the coroner said she didn't make any further recommendations, but encouraged work to support vulnerable young people and improve education about the risks of huffing to continue.
'Carried' by God
Wignall said before Faith died, she did not know that people used butane gas in this way.
"We couldn't even have that conversation with her because we never knew about such a thing until that night."
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Wignall said she had a strong Christian faith, which had been deepened by her daughter's death.
"I feel like I'm being carried by Him now, whereas before I felt like I was serving in ministry, and singing in church, and more 'doing'... but these days I feel like I'm being carried by God rather than me doing my part."
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