Four people have died and three others have required liver transplants after eating the aptly named death cap mushroom that is proliferating in California following a rainy winter.
The California Department of Public Health is urging people to avoid mushroom foraging altogether this year because death cap mushrooms are easily confused with safe, edible varieties.
Since Nov. 18 there have been more than three dozen cases of death cap poisonings reported, including the four deaths and three liver transplants, according to the health department. Many who sought medical attention suffered from rapidly evolving acute liver injury and liver failure. Several patients required admission to an intensive care unit. They have ranged in age from 19 months to 67 years old.
The death cap is one of the most poisonous mushrooms in the world and is part of a small group of mushrooms containing amatoxins, which are highly potent compounds causing 90% of fatal mushroom poisonings globally. They are in city parks and in forests, often under oak trees.
Who the fuck is giving a one year old child some mushroom they found in the woods?
None are ICE goons. I checked.
They only eat McDonald’s.
I live in the PNW, where there are several varieties of poisonous mushrooms, including death caps. Apparently people can safely forage for mushrooms - but it scares the crap out of me because of the exact scenario in this article.
I went to culinary school and they made it absolutely clear that you should never forage without an experienced mycologist with you. Or at least, never eat them before checking with one.
Foraging for mushrooms is one of those activities where the risks far outweigh the rewards, at least to me.
I always assumed people did this to find psychedelic mushrooms because why the fuck would you hike miles into nowhere to find a food item with virtually no taste that could kill you if you guess wrong or leave you lost in a forest?
Goddamn wtf mushroom people is it really worth the risk?
It’s not a risk if you know what you are doing. Then again I don’t forage for mushrooms that look like phalloides, besporigeras or marginatas. I stick with ones that are easily identifiable like Lions Mane, Oyster, Lobster, chanterelles, morels, porcinis, matsutakes and the like.
It gets you outdoors and learning your land, even if you are just observing/documenting and not collecting for food. That said, I don’t get the people that roll the dice with iffy picks or trusting roadside vendors without experience. They are crazy. Amatoxin death sounds gnarly.
Miss Mush: Mushroom surprise to you all!
They must be pretty tasty?
what happens when drugs are illegal
what happens when you don’t read the article
It’s verdant banana. They often come into the comments with bad or straight up ignorant takes. I often see them at the bottom showered in negative downvotes.
I think I’ve said this before; I’d block them, but it’s actually pretty entertaining to see someone who is so consistently wrong
