Ibogaine deaths and medical emergencies on the public record

Ibogaine can stop a heart. The published reviews count between 19 and 48 deaths since 1990 depending on the period and method, and the deaths cluster in one group: people being treated for opioid dependence, often with a heart condition nobody had found or another drug still in their system. This page lists what the literature counts, the cases reported by name, and what the programs that publish their screening actually do.

Checked October 20, 2026. Sources at the end.

How ibogaine kills

The mechanism in the case reports is cardiac. Ibogaine prolongs the QT interval, which can trigger a fatal arrhythmia (torsades de pointes), and it slows the heart. In an observational study published in Addiction in 2022, Knuijver and colleagues measured a mean QT prolongation of 95 milliseconds, and half the subjects exceeded a QTc of 500 milliseconds, a level cardiologists treat as dangerous. A 2025 UK poison-centre series found cardiotoxicity, including cardiac arrest and torsades, in six of seven exposures. The risk is compounded by pre-existing heart disease, low potassium or magnesium, and other drugs taken around the same time, above all methadone and other long-acting opioids, benzodiazepines, cocaine and alcohol.

What the literature counts

Review	Count	Period	Key findings
Alper, Stajić and Gill, Journal of Forensic Sciences, 2012	19 fatalities (15 men, 4 women, mean age 39)	1990 to December 2008, outside West Central Africa	15 of 19 were being treated for opioid detox. Pre-existing cardiovascular disease and co-ingested drugs (benzodiazepines, cocaine, opiates, methadone) in most cases with adequate data. Deaths occurred 1.5 to 76 hours after ingestion. No fatality rate was calculated.
Litjens and Brunt, "How toxic is ibogaine?", Clinical Toxicology, 2016	At least 27 deaths	Literature to 2015	Cited by the Carlat Addiction Treatment Report in July 2026.
Corkery, Progress in Brain Research, 2018	33 known deaths, including 5 in the UK	To 2018	Risk factors: undiagnosed health conditions and concomitant drug use.
Ona and colleagues, Psychopharmacology, 2022 (systematic review of adverse events 2015 to 2020)	No fatality count on the page read	18 studies	QTc prolongation was the most common acute adverse event; the authors call for Phase 1 dose-safety trials.
Arns, Shinozuka and Barsuglia, Research Square preprint, June 17, 2026 (not peer reviewed)	48 reported deaths, 1990 to 2026, across 15 countries. Clinic cohort: 6 deaths within 72 hours among 19,071 patients at 11 clinics (0.03%), all 6 in opioid use disorder patients (6 of 10,382, 0.06%); 0 of 8,689 non-substance-use patients	1996 to 2026 clinic data, self-reported, 11 of 16 invited clinics	41 of the 44 deaths with a known indication involved substance use, mostly opioid detox. The authors call the clinic rate a lower bound.
Dr. Jeffrey Kamlet, former Beond chief medical officer, quoted by Rolling Stone and MindSite News	"A folder of more than 60 ibogaine deaths"; mortality "as high as 3%" in untrained hands (his opinion)	Personal count	Not a published series.
The "1 in 300" figure	1 in 300	Cited in 2014 reporting and on HealingMaps	Unsourced in both places.

Read together: in supervised medical settings with cardiac screening the measured rate is low but not zero, and essentially all of the risk sits with opioid-dependent patients. Outside those settings, in homes, retreats without clinicians and underground sessions, the named cases below are where the deaths come from.

Cases reported by name or place

Date	Who	Where	What was reported	Source
2014	Bente Soldberg, Norwegian woman	Iboga House Center (Patrick Makala), Costa Rica	Died after a heart attack; a health department announcement followed. The Americans involved later rebranded as Rythmia, an ayahuasca centre.	Source
2014 (conviction)	Five people treated, three died, one left bedridden	Private provider, Netherlands	An earlier conviction of the same home-based provider prosecuted again in 2019.	Source
Reported Sept 2015	45-year-old woman with an opiate history	GP-run clinic, New Zealand (HDC case 13HDC00966)	Six doses; the GP left the country on the day of the last dose and monitoring was left to an untrained assistant; she was found dead in bed. The Health and Disability Commissioner found breaches of informed consent and monitoring.	Source
Feb 3, 2017	48-year-old Swedish woman on methadone and an antidepressant	Private home, Kockengen, Netherlands	Died of ibogaine intoxication. The prosecutor demanded ten years; in April 2019 the court gave the provider eight years for manslaughter and leaving the victim helpless. Another patient had been left permanently disabled after a cardiac arrest.	Source
Nov 7 to 8, 2017	Milos Martinovic, 26, Canadian, dependent on OxyContin and Xanax	Minds Alive Wellness Centre, Durban, South Africa	Found without a heartbeat about six hours after his first dose; benzodiazepine use had been allowed during treatment. The dentist who ran the unregistered centre went on trial for murder and five other counts in April 2024 and was convicted of culpable homicide in August 2024 (CBC).	Source
Mar 19, 2021	Anthony "Andy" Haman, 54	A basement in Broomfield, Colorado, United States	Seizure and death about 22 minutes after the providers left for lunch; autopsy found ibogaine toxicity with an enlarged heart, restricted arterial flow and sepsis after recent surgery. The provider pleaded guilty to federal distribution and was sentenced to four years on September 16, 2025.	Source
May 8, 2022	"David" (pseudonym), 49, New York, who had relapsed on fentanyl, cocaine, Suboxone and Valium	Beond, Cancún, Mexico	Died two days after a flood dose plus booster, shortly after the clinic opened; the family describes a cardiac arrest and three resuscitation attempts; no autopsy; the clinic declined to discuss the case (Rolling Stone).	Source
Aug 5, 2024	Lauren Levis, 40, US tourist	Soul Centro Iboga Retreat, Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica	Cardiac arrest the morning after an all-night iboga ceremony; staff could not place an IV. The OIJ sent its report to prosecutors in March 2025; the co-owner says the coroner found natural causes, the family disputes the handling.	Source
December 2024	"Blanka", 23, Polish	Iboga retreat at a rented venue, Costa Rica	Left in a paranoid state the day after the ceremony and was found dead in a river with a head wound. The organiser reportedly denied she took iboga and toxicology reportedly did not detect it.	Source
2025	Unnamed client with an opioid and polysubstance history	IbogaQuest, Tepoztlán, Mexico	The program's first fatality in 17 years, attributed by it to "underlying physiological vulnerabilities" not detected by screening. The family did not pursue legal action.	Source
Announced Jan 21, 2026	Unnamed patient	Ambio Detoxification Program, Baja California, Mexico	The clinic announced the death, declined details, and added enhanced screening, longer detox stays and a 21-day minimum for fentanyl users. The Global Ibogaine Therapy Alliance warned that nitazenes and xylazine evade standard drug screens.	Source
January 2026 (non-fatal)	Two sisters	Unnamed Mexican ibogaine clinic	Both needed resuscitation during a cardiac event, according to a writer who got no reply from the clinic.	Source
August 2026	Tourist (name not retrievable)	Psychedelic retreat, Costa Rica	Tico Times reported a further tourist death and renewed scrutiny on August 27, 2026. The page could not be read in full, so the substance and venue are unverified.	Source

Three of the most-marketed Mexican programs on this site have a press-documented death: Beond (2022), IbogaQuest (2025) and Ambio (announced January 2026). Each profile carries the detail and the program's response. A death at a clinic is not by itself evidence that the clinic is worse than one with no reported death; it can also mean the clinic treats more opioid patients, or discloses more. It is evidence that the risk is real at every program.

How regulators have responded

Costa Rica: La Nación found that no responding retreat held the required permits, and the Ministry of Health and IAFA each deflected responsibility (DoubleBlind, September 2024). On January 27, 2025 the Ministry of Health issued a public warning that ayahuasca and ibogaine lack sanitary registration and that the rituals are an unauthorised medical practice. The minister described iboga and ibogaine retreats as illegal (February 2026).
Netherlands: criminal prosecution of a home-based provider (a 2014 conviction, then an eight-year sentence in April 2019).
South Africa: a murder trial ending in a culpable homicide conviction (2024).
United States: a federal prosecution and a four-year sentence (2025).
Mexico: no regulatory action found. Ibogaine is unregulated there.

What screening looks like at the programs that publish it

The programs on this site that state their screening in writing describe some combination of: a 12-lead EKG before travel or on arrival, often with a QT cut-off; blood chemistry including potassium, magnesium and liver function; a drug screen; a physician reading the EKG; continuous cardiac monitoring during and after dosing; IV magnesium before dosing; a defibrillator and crash cart in the room; and a stated distance or written transfer agreement with a hospital. The programs that state the most are Ibogaine Treatment MX (a cardiologist reads the EKG and attends dosing, a hospital 9 minutes away under a written agreement), Transcend (a cardiologist and an emergency physician on staff, crash cart and defibrillator), MindScape (a physician and nurse at every session, continuous chest-strap monitoring), Bassé (emergency physicians, daily EKG), Iboga Wellness Institute (an anesthesiologist as medical director, EKG before and within 24 hours after) and Ambio (EKG within 60 days, electrolyte panel, IV magnesium for every client).

At the other end, the ceremony retreats in Costa Rica, Canada and Gabon generally name no clinician at all. The programs list has a column for each of these points and a filter for "physician during dosing" and "cardiac screening".

The methadone and Suboxone problem

Long-acting opioids stay in the body for days to weeks. Taking ibogaine with methadone, buprenorphine or Sublocade still on board is the combination that appears again and again in the fatality reports, including the 2017 Netherlands case. That is why the medical programs require a switch to a short-acting opioid for weeks before dosing, and why the ones that do not publish such a rule deserve a direct question. The guide to ibogaine for opioids, fentanyl, methadone and Suboxone goes through each program's stated rule.

Sources

This page reports deaths and emergencies as described in the cited sources. Program statements about their own safety records are reported as their statements. Not medical advice.