Australian authorities investigate two deaths after the use of poison dart frog mucus in natural therapy rituals

Australian authorities are investigating the death of two people from the use of kambo, a mucus from an Amazon poisonous frog, in two natural therapy procedures that occurred in the New South Wales region in 2019 and 2021, judicial sources confirmed Thursday.

“The New South Wales Coroner's Court is examining two deaths that occurred shortly after the use of kambo in natural therapy procedures,” the New South Wales court said in an email sent to EFE.

The Court, in charge of investigating “adequately all sudden, unexpected, inexplicable or suspicious deaths”, holds a series of public hearings between May 8 and 12 to gather “evidence” within the framework of the investigation, ordered last year by the state government.

Also, once the hearings are concluded, the court plans to provide recommendations on the two deaths, which occurred in northeast New South Wales, a popular area for alternative communities and natural therapy organizations in the oceanic country.

The investigation refers to the cases of Natasha Lechner, 39, who died of cardiac arrest in 2019 allegedly due to kambo, and Jarraad Antonovich, 46, who died from a perforation in the esophagus, after consuming ayahuasca, a psychedelic substance, and kambó during a natural therapy retreat in 2021.

The forensic examinations after the autopsies determined that Antonovich died due to toxic substances, while they indicated, in the case of Lechner, that the woman died of cardiac arrest, despite the fact that she did not suffer from any coronary problem.

Kambó is a toxic substance secreted by the Phyllomedusa bicolor frog, also known as the kambó frog or big monkey frog and which lives mainly in the Brazilian Amazon, although it is also found in other South American countries.

The toxin is included in some natural therapy rituals and is often placed on the burns of users participating in those treatments so that it is absorbed through the skin, assistant attorney Peggy Dwyer explained, according to a transcript of their argument at the start of the proceedings. hearings, to which EFE had access.

After smearing the kambo, the shaman or naturopathic doctor tells the person who participates in this body cleansing ritual or spiritual experience to “drink a liter and a half of water to vomit or purge,” added the lawyer.

Precisely, the use of kambo was banned throughout Australia in 2021, a few days after Antonovich's death.