Autopsy set for Quebec woman dead after ‘detoxification treatment’


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MONTREAL - An autopsy of a 35-year-old woman who died Friday after undergoing a “detoxification treatment” will help determine what occurred at a rural retreat near South Durham, police said Saturday.

Two women were rushed to hospital in the early hours of Friday after experiencing distress following a treatment during which their bodies were covered in mud and wrapped in plastic.

An emergency call was placed about 1:15 a.m. Friday, police said. First responders on the scene reported that a number of people participating in treatments at the “energizing centre” 110 kilometres east of Montreal complained of not feeling well.

Chantal Lavigne, 35, of St. Albert de Warwick, died after being transported to hospital, Sûreté du Québec spokesman Daniel Thibaudeau said.

Another woman, 49, was hospitalized Friday. An update on her condition was not available Saturday.

About 10 people had participated in the treatment held at a farm on Rang 10 outside South Durham, police said.

Thibaudeau could not confirm published reports that the deceased woman had spent several hours wrapped in plastic before emergency services were summoned.

Such reports of people being subjected to prolonged periods wrapped in plastic has rattled operators of established health spas in Quebec.

“I consider that abhorrent and incredible,” Isabelle Perreault, vice-president of Spas Relais Santé, an association of Quebec spas, said in a telephone interview.

Protocols practised at member spas require that no one spend more than 30 minutes in a plastic wrap treatment, she said.

Treated mud or algae products are applied to a client who is lying on a plastic covering. The covering is then wrapped around the client with an opening in front, she said.

Clients are not “rolled in plastic” and can easily open the wrap themselves, said Perreault who operates Spa Santé Corps & âme.

Clients are quizzed about their health before the treatment and they are checked after 15 minutes in the wrap, Perreault said.

Wraps are routine at spas but not wildly popular, said Perreault. Her spa provides about five wrap treatments for every 100 massages, she estimated.

The spa association has urged the provincial government to regulate health spas and has been working with the provincial standards agency to devise norms.

As it stands now, “anyone, anyplace can open a spa tomorrow morning and describe it as a professional” operation, Perreault said.

Investigators are continuing to inquire into the matter, Thibaudeau said. No one has been taken into custody.

In Arizona in 2009, three participants in a sweat lodge died and another 18 were hospitalized. That event, part of a “Spiritual Warrior” retreat, was organized by self-help author James Arthur Ray.

Ray was convicted of three counts of negligent homicide by a jury in June.

lmoore@montrealgazette.com

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