By Steven Deare
An inquest into the death of a man who took an illicit substance at a spiritual health retreat has heard how its leaders appeared unsure how to respond to an unfolding emergency.
Jarrad Antonovich died from a perforated oesophagus after consuming the plant-based psychedelic ayahuasca and frog-based poison kambo at the week-long Dreaming Arts Festival at Arcoora retreat in northern NSW on October 16, 2021.
Jarrad Antonovich, 46, has been remembered as a “very friendly, beautiful man”.Credit: Facebook
People who attended the event told the inquest they were concerned for the 46-year-old from Lismore after noticing his discomfort increasing as the day wore on.
Queensland man Garth Brewin tried kambo at the same morning ceremony and later noticed Antonovich had a “puffy” face and swollen eyes.
“The intensity of that bloating seemed out of the ordinary,” he said. “All his features were puffing out to the sides. The face was, like, closing up.”
James Camiller was another who noticed that Antonovich was off-colour and had a swelling neck.
“When I’d seen him trying to purge, it looked very uncomfortable. When he was trying to purge, he was more so grunting,” Camiller told a Byron Bay courtroom.
Camiller approached the man who ran the kambo ceremony, Cameron Kite.
“I asked Cameron, ‘What’s going on’,” Camiller said. “Cameron said: ‘I don’t know, I’ve never seen this before’.”
Camiller and Brewin both noticed Kite and the organiser of the retreat, Soulore Solaris, talking to a woman about Antonovich’s symptoms.
The men were concerned for Antonovich but deferred to the woman, who they appeared to regard as an expert.
Camiller overheard the woman claiming kambo experiences could last 24 hours and there may be other factors at play.
“She said he could be passing a kidney stone,” he told the inquest. “I didn’t get the impression she knew exactly what was happening.”
Camiller and another witness from the event, Pedro Cruz-Rodrigues, said the offer was made to call an ambulance but Antonovich declined.
His condition worsened and he had to be assisted to enter a ceremony in a temple that evening.
Antonovich was wheezing during the ceremony, and Brewin encouraged him to take deeper breaths.
Brewin said he was on the verge of calling an ambulance despite Antonovich’s claims that he was OK.
However, Brewin was reassured by experienced elders monitoring the situation.
“If they’ve seen people go through this and come through the other side, it makes sense to trust their experience,” Brewin said of his mindset at the time.
Cruz-Rodrigues had a similar view. He noticed elders monitoring Antonovich after the ceremony and was told the man was “going through the process of kambo”.
“I didn’t feel like I had to worry about it because there were four experienced people around him,” Cruz-Rodrigues said.
He later helped try to resuscitate Antonovich before an ambulance was called, but it was too late to save his life.
“Losing the person in my hands was quite a strong experience,” Cruz-Rodrigues said.
He agreed that those using the substances needed to accept that ambulances might need to be called in cases of emergency.
But he added: “We’ve got to remember Jarrad didn’t want to go to hospital.”
Antonovich had previously travelled to South America and was interested in shamanistic rituals and wellness, the inquest heard.
The use of ayahuasca and kambo is based on the traditional knowledge of indigenous South American communities, with adherents believing the substances can clean the body of impurities.
Medical experts, however, say there is no proof the substances do more than make people extremely ill.
The inquest resumes on Tuesday, with Kite and Solaris due to give evidence next week.
–AAP