The fourteen-year-old boy who died after injecting himself with a crushed butterfly suffered agonising symptoms for seven days before he died, local media reports.
Davi Nunes Moreira, 14, died in hospital in Planalto, Brazil last Thursday after telling staff he had injected a solution made of crushed butterfly into his leg.
Believed to have carried out the dangerous procedure as part of an ‘online challenge’, Moreira began vomiting and struggled to walk before admitting his mistake.
The youngster was taken into hospital by his father and remained in the Vitória da Conquista general hospital for a week, receiving specialised support, before he died.
The Civil Police of Bahia continue to investigate the tragedy and are awaiting expert reports to clarify the cause of death, per local media.
Luiz Fernando D. Relvas, a specialist at Hospital Santa Marcelina, told VivaBem, ‘it could have been an embolism, an infection, or an allergic reaction’.
‘We don’t know how he prepared this mixture or the size of the fragments he managed to inject into the body,’ he told the Brazilian outlet.
‘There may have been air left inside, which could lead to an embolism,’ he said, adding that such a condition can lead to sudden deterioration and death.
Investigators are also reportedly exploring the possibility that toxins from the mix could have caused Moreira’s body to shut down as he went into septic shock.
Moreira reportedly denied that he had injected himself after seeing the ‘experiment’ performed online, though details have been contested in Brazilian media.
He is understood to have told his father initially that he had hurt himself while playing after picking up a limp.
But after his condition got worse, Moreira admitted what he had done, and his father found a syringe under his pillow, local media reports.
Moreira is said to have told medics that he went into a chemist for supplies before mixing a dead butterfly in water and injecting the liquid into his right leg.
Civil Police in Vitoria da Conquista, leading the investigation, said that an autopsy will help clarify the cause of death.
Last April, an online influencer from Brazil nearly required amputation after taking part in an ill-advised viral trend for her two million followers.
‘Thammy MC’ was left unable to walk after standing in a bucket of ice and salt for an online ‘dare’ that turned her feet black and nearly required the amputation of her toes.
‘We spent 15 minutes with our feet on the ice with coarse salt,’ she said, recounting the horror.
‘When I took my foot out I never felt such pain in my life. Three of my toes had turned black when it came out of the ice bucket.’
Thammy was treated at a clinic where she was told she was at risk of thrombosis, and that she could have developed necrosis had she remained in the ice another minute.
Unable to put any pressure on her feet, she said she now gets around the house by being dragged in a garden chair by her mother, who pushes her from room to room.