Death by mail

For years, he struggled through bouts of pain and fatigue that defied medical diagnosis and left him depressed about his inability to carry on normal daily activities and fearful that he would never regain normal health. He had dreams, ambitions, accomplishments and, say many who knew him, vast potential. But three months ago, in the throes of a flu that upended a period of relatively good health, Nick Klonoski took his own life. He had just turned 29. Klonoski did not use any of the commonly known methods of suicide. Instead, he employed a “helium hood kit” that he ordered by mail from a two-person company in Southern California. . . .

In Oregon, a person who “intentionally causes or aids another person to commit suicide” can be prosecuted for second-degree manslaughter, except for cases of physician-assisted suicide carried out according to the Oregon Death With Dignity Act, which defines the procedure as medical treatment. . . .

[A]n article that appeared this month in the American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, suggesting that the rate of suicide by helium asphyxiation correlates directly with the first revised version of “Final Exit” in 2000 that included initial instructions for the method, as well as the subsequent revisions published in 2002 and 2009.

In their article, “Suicide by Asphyxiation Due to Helium Inhalation,” the researchers surmise that many more deaths from helium take place than are documented: In some cases the apparatus is removed before examination of the death scene; the presence of helium is difficult to detect during autopsy or toxicology; or no testing is done because the death resulted from suicide.

. . . Dr. Karen Gunson, Oregon’s chief medical examiner, said she has noticed an uptick in the number of helium-related deaths recently. Register Guard