Natosha Anderson, the mother of 22-year-old Bernard McCalip, found him two weeks ago on the bathroom floor after being sick for a number of hours, according to ABC affiliate WSL-TV.
“He said, ‘I can’t feel my heart.’ And I said, ‘What’s wrong? What’s going on?’ And he said, ‘I took a pong seed.’ And I said, ‘A what? What is that?'” Anderson told WLS-TV. “The police, the paramedics, they didn’t even know, no one knew.” The young man later died at Franciscan St. Margaret Hospital in Hammond, Indiana, according to WSL-TV.
This story is particularly sad because Bernard had been struggling with the desire to live as a woman. Him knowing he was transgender didn’t make it any easier in school, where he was often bullied. He had recently changed his name to Lucia, but his mother said she wasn’t aware of him having any suicidal thoughts.
The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention says that almost 42 percent of transgender women attempt suicide at some time in their lives. Describing her son’s suicide, Anderson said, “I’m pretty sure he thought it was going to be easy, but it wasn’t. He died in pain. It was slow, and it was painful.”
A warning to other parents
Anderson has come forward because she wants other parents to know about the strange poison that caused her son’s death. “I don’t want my son to die in vain,” Anderson told WLS-TV. “If I can save one life, just one.” Known around the world as the “pong pong seed,” it has long been known as the perfect poison to use if you wanted to murder someone, or commit suicide.
The “suicide tree” is aptly named. It is actually an ornamental bush or tree, depending how it is grown, called Cerbera odollam. It grows in swampy, marshy areas in India and southern Asia, and can reach heights of up to 30 feet (10 meters).
The fruit of this tree looks like a small mango, with the skin covering an oval seed or kernel. Cerbera closely resembles Oleander, and both plants belong to the same family, Apocynaceae. Oleander is one of the world’s most toxic ornamental garden plants, and all parts of it are toxic.
What is fascinating, if anything about the two plants could be considered fascinating, is that both have compounds known as cardiac glycosides which are very similar in their chemical structure, so much so that the only difference found in the position of the acetate group.
Besides the pong pong seed making someone quite ill, with nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, and a painful abdomen, the effects of the cardiac glycoside, called cerberin, on the heart is devastating. The heart starts pumping extra hard, leading to an irregular heartbeat, as well as an increase in potassium. Death comes slowly.
Researchers say more people have used pong pong seeds to commit suicide than any other plant in the world. “Cerberin appears to be one of the most lethal agents in this class of medications or natural plants,” University of Chicago Medicine heart-rhythm specialist Dr. Roderick Tung told WLS.
The Blaze is reporting that despite their toxicity, pong pong seeds are not regulated in the U.S. They can be purchased from eBay and other sources online. The seeds Anderson’s son bought online were sent from Thailand. The seeds cost one dollar with a four dollar shipping charge.
“I can go online and purchase something for $5 — $5 and that can literally devastate a family and kill someone. I don’t understand,” Anderson said. “I don’t want my son to die in vain,” Anderson told WLS-TV. “If I can save one life, just one.”
