Krystal Talavera, 39, took legal herbal extract, which has opioid-like effect on the brain, in 2021 and died shortly after
The family of a Florida woman who died in 2021 after ingesting kratom has been awarded more than $11m from a distributor of the south-east Asian herbal extract that has an opioid-like effect on the brain.
In a ruling finalized Thursday, judge Donald Middlebrooks of the federal courthouse in West Palm Beach, Florida, told a company operating as the Kratom Distro to pay damages to the four surviving children of Krystal Talavera as well as her estate.
“There is of course no amount of money that will make up for the pain and suffering that Ms Talavera’s children are enduring because of their mother’s death,” Middlebrooks wrote in court records addressing the sanction against Kratom Distro. “The law nonetheless recognizes that the defendant must pay something, however inadequate.”
Talavera’s oldest son, Devin Filipelli, provided a statement to McClatchy News which expressed hope that his family award would highlight what he called “the dangers of kratom”.
“I am grateful for the judge’s decision, but no amount of money will bring my mom back or numb my pain,” Fileppelli’s statement said.
Kratom Distro’s owner – Sean Michael Harder – told the Guardian on Saturday that he had no comment on Middlebrooks’s judgment or whether he may seek a reversal of it. The judgment was a default one, meaning the company did not try to defend itself in the preceding litigation.
