A martial artist who traded blows with Chuck Norris on screen and guarded David Bowie off it collapsed in front of his wife after injecting a drug his own doctor had prescribed.

Richard Norton, the Australian actor, stuntman and fight coordinator, died at 75 after injecting an excess dose of unapproved peptides prescribed by his doctor, Victorian coroner David Ryan found in findings handed down Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, at the Coroners Court of Victoria.

“I am satisfied that Richard’s death was triggered by his injection of the peptide CJC1295/Ipamorelin,” Ryan wrote in his written findings.

The injection set off an anaphylactic reaction, which led to cardiac arrest. Norton died at The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne on March 30, 2025, less than two weeks after starting the course of prescribed injections. His death is believed to be the first in Australia linked to unapproved peptide use.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) should examine both the therapeutic benefits and the safety risks of peptides such as CJC-1295 and ipamorelin, Ryan recommended, and should consider further restrictions. Those could include moving the drugs from schedule 4, prescription-only medicines, to schedule 10, which covers clinical trials and other experimental settings. Doctors, in his view, should not have the option of prescribing the peptides at all.

Norton had CJC-1295 and ipamorelin, BPC157 and Thymosin B4/TB-500 in his possession, and none of the four is listed in the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods. Health-related products must appear on that register before they can be made, supplied or exported in Australia, and products absent from it are classed as unapproved, meaning regulators have not evaluated them for quality, safety or efficacy.

The Vial He Said He Broke

Norton approached Dr. Jerzy Muchnicki in March 2025, interested in peptide therapy. Fatigue, shoulder pain and loss of muscle were troubling him, and he was recovering from surgery after bilateral shoulder reconstruction.

What the treatment involved came up in conversation between the two, along with its experimental nature, the potential risks and the absence of any option approved by the TGA. Norton told the doctor another practitioner had prescribed peptides for him before and that they had worked. Blood tests established his baseline health and checked for contraindications.

An informed consent form, which he signed, laid out the treatment, its benefits and its risks, anaphylaxis among them. Muchnicki wrote the prescription for CJC-1295 and ipamorelin on March 19, 2025. The therapy was working, Norton told his care team a week later. On March 28, 2025, he admitted to a nurse that he was injecting twice his prescribed dose, and she instructed him to return to the prescribed amount starting the next week. He also asked for a replacement vial, saying he had broken the original, and he received it along with two additional peptides.

That evening Norton injected another dose and complained of feeling hot and flushed. His wife, Judy Green, watched him collapse and go unresponsive; she called for help and performed CPR until paramedics arrived. Cardiac arrest followed, and he died in the hospital two days later.

From Five a Month to 217

Emergency departments at New South Wales hospitals logged 1,180 visits tied to unapproved peptide injections between July 2025 and September 2026, according to NSW Health. Monthly cases climbed from five in July 2025 to 217 in September 2026.

Figures published Monday, Oct. 19, break down those 1,180 presentations: a quarter of patients were aged 16 to 24, 32 percent were 25 to 34 and 26 percent were 35 to 44. Men accounted for 51 percent. Retatrutide featured in 71 percent of the presentations.

“We know that using these unapproved substances can come with real health risks, but it’s particularly alarming to see the growing pressure they’re placing on our health system,” NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said.

NSW Chief Health Officer Dr. Kerry Chant said: “A professional looking website, a label, purity claim, reviews, or influencer endorsement is not proof of what is inside the product.”

Lynda Scammell, head of borderlines at the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, told LADbible: “We disregard claims that products are for ‘research purposes’ if it is clear that such claims are being used as an attempt to avoid medicines regulations. If there is evidence within the promotional material that the products are in fact unauthorised medicines intended for human use, we will take appropriate regulatory action.” She added that many peptides sold for body-building purposes, with no medicinal claims attached, are not considered medicines.

A Doctor Sent Back to Training

The Medical Board of Australia investigated Muchnicki. An independent expert engaged by the board found insufficient evidence that either peptide was safe, effective or beneficial for human use, and rated the doctor’s clinical notes well below the expected standard. Even so, the board did not take regulatory action.

Instead, it ordered Muchnicki to undergo one-on-one training in keeping and managing clinical records. He acknowledged the criticism, accepted responsibility and voiced regret over what Norton and his family went through, and he committed not to prescribe peptides unless robust clinical evidence supports it.

The Last Photo on Instagram

Norton appeared in dozens of films, including “The Octagon,” “Mad Max: Fury Road” and “The Suicide Squad.” He also taught martial arts and worked as a bodyguard for music figures including David Bowie. Among those he worked with or trained were Chuck Norris, Jackie Chan, Margot Robbie, Scarlett Johansson, Ben Affleck, Liam Neeson and Tom Hardy.

Martial arts instructor Kacey Chong posted his final Instagram photo 11 days before his death, on March 19, 2025, with the caption: “Awesome to catch up and have a good chat with Soke Richard Norton at the BJMA State Training Day.” Norton’s last red carpet appearance came on Oct. 9, 2024, at the Los Angeles premiere of his horror film “Black Creek.”

Green announced his death at the time, writing on Instagram: “I am numb and devastated, I have no words,” and adding, “I have lost my everything.”