For over five days, doctors couldn't pinpoint a reason why 33-year-old Nathan Greenaway collapsed at the English estate where he worked in September.
He succumbed to multiple organ failure and died on Sept. 7. His father poured over documents over Greenaway's death and thinks the gardener-by-trade came in contact with aconitum, Fox News reported.
Otherwise known as "Devil's helmet," wolfsbane and monkshood, the deadly flower does grow on the property where Greenaway was working. It's a $6 million estate owned by a venture capitalist who has since retired.
It's not clear how or why he might have brushed up against the plant, but a histopathologist has testified at a pre-inquest hearing that aconitum is most likely not the cause of Greenaway's death.
If it's not properly handled with gloves, coming in contact with the flower can lead to dizziness, vomiting, diarrhea and in life threatening cases, paralysis of the airways and heart, according to the Telegraph.
The plant's toxins would have caused fatal damage to his organs after only a few hours, according to others who testified. A lawyer for the estate owner said the retired venture capitalist isn't convinced that a plant on his grounds could have killed the man, but a blood sample taken when Greenaway was in the hospital has been disposed of.
On the other hand, the testimony stated that the blood sample wouldn't have contained the plant's toxins in just one day, making the destroyed sample possibly irrelevant. Poisoning from aconitum usually happens when the plant is eaten and getting sick from it is rare, but a Canadian actor died while camping in 2004 after accidentally ingesting it, according to the BBC.
