Teenager Davi Nunes Moreira was rushed to hospital in Planalto in the north-east Brazilian state of Bahia after he began vomiting and started limping, telling doctors he had injected a butterfly
A 14-year-old boy went into septic shock and died after injecting himself with a dead butterfly for an “online challenge.”
Teenager Davi Nunes Moreira was rushed to hospital in Planalto in the north-east Brazilian state of Bahia after he began vomiting and started limping. Davi is said to have told doctors he went to a chemist, mixed a dead butterfly in water and then injected the liquid into his right leg.
Tragically, as he started to deteriorate, he was rushed to another hospital in the state’s third largest city of Vitoria da Conquista last Wednesday but later died. He didn’t explain what type of butterfly he had picked. Police are now awaiting full post-mortem results after opening an investigation said to be focusing on the possibility he carried out the bizarre act as part of a social media craze.
Some Brazilian media are openly speculating he had picked up on an experiment he saw online, although Davi is said to have denied the allegation when it was put to him before he passed away. The mystery death, being linked to possible toxins in the butterfly mix which could have caused Davi’s body to shut down as he went into septic shock, is making headlines in his native country.
Civil Police in Vitoria da Conquista are leading the investigation into Davi’s death. A spokesman for the force said: “The autopsy results will help clarify the cause of death. The investigation is designed to clear up what happened.”
Davi’s father found the syringe his son used to inject himself under his pillow while he was tidying up the house according to local reports. Professor Marcelo Duarte, director of Sao Paulo University’s Zoology Museum and a butterfly specialist, said: “Butterflies have a complex biology, and the fluids present in their bodies have not been studied in depth in terms of their toxicity to humans.”
The milkweed Monarch butterflies feed on as a caterpillar is actually a poisonous toxin and is stored in their bodies. This is what makes the monarch butterfly taste so terrible to predators, although experts have been quick to point out the amount of these toxins tends to be too small to represent a serious risk to human health.
Commenting on speculation Davi had been experimenting or taking part in an Internet challenge, Gabriel Moreth wrote online: “This generation is complicated and needs a lot of care. They believe in lots of things online, challenges, videos. Rest in peace, how his family must be suffering.”
Social media user Valderiza Guedes added: “They could do an investigation on his social media networks. Some of the things you see online are madness and spine-chilling.”