Vulnerable people are being drawn into "healing" rituals involving frog poison administered by people claiming to be health practitioners but lack basic first aid knowledge in an emergency, a coroner has found.
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Natasha Lechner, 39, died in 2019 after taking part in a kambo ceremony, a practice based off a South American ritual where toxin from the giant monkey frog is applied to burn wounds.
Proponents believe the practice will have healing properties, but it has been linked to multiple deaths in Australia.
A three-day inquest into the circumstances surrounding Ms Lechner's death was held at Lismore courthouse in May, 2023.
On Friday, NSW State Coroner Teresa O'Sullivan handed down her findings that the Mullumbimby local died as a result of an adverse cardiac event triggered by the administration of the kambo frog toxin.
The inquest heard Ms Lechner, described as "an old soul in a young body" by her father, had suffered from multiple chronic health issues which caused her significant pain for many years.
She became interested in alternative medicine and in 2015 learned about kambo and its purported healing properties.
Ms Lechner had undertaken training to become a kambo practitioner, a role Ms O'Sullivan said she took seriously.
The day she died, Ms Lechner took part in a kambo ritual with a friend and fellow practitioner at a house in Mullumbimby.
Soon after the toxin was administered, Ms Lechner felt faint and lay down on the floor before losing consciousness.
Paramedics who attended the house were unable to revive her.
In her findings, Ms O'Sullivan noted kambo was a largely unregulated substance at the time of Ms Lechner's death in 2019.
Since then, new regulations prohibit the manufacture, supply or use of kambo in NSW unless a person is expressly authorised to do so.
In some South American countries kambo has become illegal outside of its traditional cultural use.
"If that reform had not already occurred, I would have made a recommendation for the manufacture, supply and use of kambo to be illegal," Ms O'Sullivan said.
"It appears to me that a number of vulnerable people are drawn to using kambo in circumstances where those who administer it may hold themselves out as part of a healing profession and yet lack training in basic first aid.
"Those persons may not be prepared themselves for what to do in an emergency."
A separate inquest is examining the October 2021 death of Lismore man Jarrad Antonovich.
The 46-year-old ingested the plant-based psychedelic ayahuasca and kambo shortly before he died.
The inquest has been paused after publicity surrounding it led to people coming forward with more information.
Australian Associated Press
