A coroner has concluded that Richard Norton died after a heart attack triggered by peptide injections he was taking in excess of the dose prescribed for him. The 75-year-old died on March 30, 2025, and Melbourne-based coroner David Ryan said the injections set off the fatal event.
The report is being read now because it turns a private medical decision into a public warning about peptide therapy. Norton had been using CJC1295 and Ipamorelin, compounds promoted online for faster healing, better sleep and other benefits, and Ryan said the death appears to be the first confirmed fatality Down Under linked to unapproved peptides.
Ryan’s finding rested on the timeline around Norton’s final days. Two days before he died, Norton told a doctor’s nurse that he had been administering double the prescribed dose of CJC1295 and Ipamorelin. The nurse told him that from the following week he should only use the prescribed amount. Before that, on March 11, Norton had seen Dr. Jerzy Muchnicki while recovering from shoulder surgery, complained of fatigue and pain, and said he was interested in peptide therapy. He also said he had previously been prescribed peptides by another practitioner for similar symptoms.
Muchnicki discussed the experimental nature of the treatment with Norton, who signed a consent form before the peptides were prescribed. By March 25, Norton told Muchnicki that he was feeling good and that the peptide therapy was improving his symptoms. On March 28, he called the office to say he had dropped and broken a vial of CJC1295 and Ipamorelin and wanted a replacement. He also reported better sleep, less pain and more exercise capacity, with no side effects, and the replacement was authorized.
That evening, Judy Green said Norton took a second dose, then complained of feeling hot and flushed and became unresponsive. He was rushed to a hospital and died two days later. That sequence is what makes the coroner’s conclusion so stark: Norton said the treatment was helping him, yet Ryan determined that the injection itself triggered the heart attack. The unresolved question is not whether the dose was taken; it is the medical basis that tied that dose to the fatal collapse.
Norton’s death has wider resonance because he was a well-known trainer and stuntman who worked with Ben Affleck, Tom Hardy, Scarlett Johansson, Margot Robbie, David Bowie and Stevie Nicks. But the focus of this case is narrower and harder to shake: a treatment presented as therapeutic, a dose taken above what had been prescribed, and a coroner’s finding that the injection was the immediate cause of death.
