A mum who thought she was drinking a healthy supplement with her morning coffee has suffered respiratory failure brought on by opioid-like effects.
Krystal Talavera, a registered nurse, was taken kratom along with her morning drink. But her death has now become the latest connected to the substance, reports the New York Post.
Kratom, which is often sold at gas stations across the United States and online, comes with a warning from the FDA. The organisation it can cause liver damage, seizures and even death, with the CDC linking it to more than 100 deaths in just 18 months.
Now the relatives of people who have died after using the substance have spoken out. They want people to be aware of how deadly the substance can be.
Talvara’s eldest son David Filippelli has now sued the makers of the supplement found inside her body when she died at the family home in Palm Beach found.
The 39-year-old, who lived with her partner and four children, was a nurse who had just been promoted at the hospice care home where she worked. But in June 2021, after celebrating Filippeli getting into Florida State University, her partner found her collapsed beside a cup and coffee and an open bag of “Space Dust”, one of the names kratom is marketed as.
Paramedics could not revive her and she was declared dead later. An autopsy said she had suffered acute “mitragynine” intoxication, caused by the active ingredient of kratom, leading her to suffer respiratory failure.
Filippelli, 21, and his family won an $11 million judgment in a wrongful death federal lawsuit last week against Kratom Distro and distributor Grow LLC. He said the supplements his mom purchased produced “opioid-like effects” which the company should have known about.
The companies denied breaking laws by not notifying people of the potential dangers of their products, but withdrew their attorneys from the case, leading to a default judgement. “It’s like buying a drug. You don’t know what you’re getting,” Devin Filippelli, 21, told The Post.
“If I had a message, I’d say don’t take it at all. Every time you take it you’re playing Russian roulette with your life. Is that worth it?”
Filippelli said his mother started using kratom thinking it was healthy. Kratom Distro, the website she purchased the supplement “Space Dust” promotes products on its website as having an “uplifting and energetic” effect.
On the night before his mother’s death, Filippelli was celebrating his high school graduation with her. She was over the moon he’d be attending the University of Florida.
Latest estimates from 2021 found that 1.7 million Americans used kratom last year. But a CDC study in 2019 found it had caused 107 deaths in 32 states between July 2016 and December 2017.
While some users report kratom can relieve pains, depression and anxiety and reduce symptoms of opioid withdrawal, at higher doses, the herbal substance can mimic an opioid. There are some rules around kratom, but none apply across the entire US.
The susbtance is outlawed in six states – Alabama; Arkansas; Indiana; Rhode Island; Vermont and Wisconsin – and some cities or counties ban its sale. Doctors urge buyers to beware as its active ingredient, mitragynine, can be highly addicting, and has shown up in toxicology reports of some individuals who have died after ingesting the substance.
Melissa Vidrine, a licensed clinical social worker from Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, believes the kratom product that she says killed her son Daniel Vidrine in February, 2021, is still on sale at the local gas station. She says it is for sale at the register under the label Whole Herbs.
Her son Daniel, an Air Force veteran, was 26 when he died from acute mitragynine toxicity, also known as a kratom overdose. She said: “He said it helped him with his depression and anxiety. He said it helped him with sleep, but there was no evidence that it really did because it made his behavior more erratic.”
The mother also says the kratom sold in stores is different to the pure leaf. She added: “The kratom sold in the United States is not the same kratom leaf plucked from a plant and used as a tea in South East Asia. [It] may be contaminated, degraded, and may not be safe for human consumption.”
