Investigations are underway into two deaths in the Northern Rivers following ceremonies using the ‘natural therapies’ kambo and ayahuasca.
NSW State Coroner, Teresa O’Sullivan, is presiding over hearings into the death of Natasha Lechner, 39, who died at a home in Mullumbimby on March 8, 2019 following a kambo ceremony.
Additionally, evidence has been tabled at the Lismore courthouse around the death of Jarrad Antonovich, 46, near Kyogle.
Kambo and ayahuasca are South American traditional medicines used in purging or cleansing rituals.
Ayahuasca is commonly made from the Banisteriopsis caapi vine, and when drunk, produces psychoactive states of consciousness.
During a kambo ceremony, secretions are obtained under duress from the frog Phyllomedusa bicolor, and are applied via burns into the skin.
According to www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au, ‘There is a risk of serious adverse reactions, especially if kambo enters the bloodstream’.
Pathologist, Dr Lorraine du Toit-Prinsloo, prepared Natasha’s report and attended court online from Newcastle, and told the court it was the first case she had encountered.
The court heard that Natasha, who was an experienced kambo practitioner, went into cardiac arrest during the ceremony.
There was ‘No evidence of pre-existing heart conditions for Natasha’, Dr du Toit-Prinsloo said.
‘On the balance of probabilities, she said that it was ‘Likely [kambo] had a causal relationship’ to Natasha’s death’.
The position was supported by cardiologist, Dr Mark Adams.
Natasha’s father, Frank, addressed the courts, and said she was ‘an old soul in a young body’.
‘At 11 years, she showed wisdom in her poetry’ and had an ‘interest in story telling and spirituality’.
He also said his daughter was ‘not a risk taker’.
Frank said it wasn’t made apparent to participants that you could die from kambo, and it ‘should have been emphasised’.
He added that he was ‘glad to see kambo has been made illegal’, yet said it was ‘difficult to police’, and that he was disappointed first-aid wasn’t administered at the time on Natasha.
Frank became upset when describing Natasha as a ‘generous, caring and soulful individual’.
‘You never get over it’, he said in tears.
The inquiries continue at the Lismore Courthouse.
I’m guessing that all these people refused to get vaccinated because they wouldn’t put poison into their bodies?
You may be right Tony, but do note the key difference outlined here: the practitioners here did not outline the risks, where the risk of vaccinations is outlined to recipients
In the specific case of COVID vaccines, any information presented by medical practitioners to patients that did not sound like a sales pitch was liable to result in that practitioner being deregistered by AHPRA. This rule was spelled out in a document circulated by AHPRA early in pandemic.
I think the point about ‘not putting poison into one’s body’ from the point of view of Kambo practitioners is that one is natural and the other, chemical. Take it or leave it.
I choose to leave both and furthermore, in response to Shane Adams – your assertion that the risks were adequately outlined for the vaccines is laughable as we now know that the risks and side effects were never properly trialled nor evaluated while the mounting numbers ofvaccine injuries and deaths continue to be heavily suppressed in the media – ten times more than some vaccines that were previously taken off the market is the official figure.
Anyone who does this to a harmless creature deserves all they get. Primitive and disgusting.