Poison Mushroom Soup Kills 2

Codger_64

Codger_64

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This has been in the news recently. I looked but didn't see it previously posted here, but thought it might be of interest.

The variety of poisonous mushrooms that were used in the soup is yet unknown, but Dr. Todd Mitchell, a Santa Cruz, Calif., doctor who is reportedly consulting on treatment of one of the patients, told NBC News that the patient is suffering from amatoxin poisoning.

Multiple mushroom species in California contain the poison, which accounts for 90 percent of mushroom-related fatalities and leads to liver failure if untreated, according to a 2010 paper on amatoxin in the journal Toxicon. But the mushroom responsible for the most deaths, in California and worldwide, is Amanita phalloides, or the death cap. The non-native species bears a treacherous resemblance to a few edible varieties, but it packs a potentially fatal dose of amatoxin in as little as 1.1 ounces (30 grams), or roughly half a mushroom cap.
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http://news.yahoo.com/poison-mushroom-soup-kills-2-elderly-women-223939274.html

Basicly, a caregiver at an assisted living center misidentified wild picked mushrooms, made soup with them and served it to the residents and staff. Two are dead and four hospitalized.

My advice is that if you are going to pick and eat, first learn to positively identify your fungi. There are plenty of resources for information about wild edibles and how to tell them from the ones that are poisonous. Best option, besides learning visual I.D. from a book or the web, is to go out 'shrooming with someone who is experienced for the first few times. There are other cues to look for besides strictly the appearance for many varieties. Immature mushrooms are difficult sometimes to positively identify. And just because most mushrooms in a group are edible does not mean that there is not an immature poisonous one lurking in the flock.
 
Sad story

Thanks for the heads up

I Feel sorry for the families of the people who died
 
Sad story. I get asked about mushroom ID by students a lot when out discussing wild edibles. I can only positively identify a couple of edible types. My standard answer when asked is that (A) I am not qualified to teach fungi identification, so I don't go there. (B) There isn't enough nutritional value in mushrooms for them to be worth the risk in a survival situation.
 
Codger_64 said:
My advice is that if you are going to pick and eat, first learn to positively identify your fungi. There are plenty of resources for information about wild edibles and how to tell them from the ones that are poisonous. Best option, besides learning visual I.D. from a book or the web, is to go out 'shrooming with someone who is experienced for the first few times. There are other cues to look for besides strictly the appearance for many varieties. Immature mushrooms are difficult sometimes to positively identify. And just because most mushrooms in a group are edible does not mean that there is not an immature poisonous one lurking in the flock.
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Codger, this is all really good advice. I ate caesars amanitas last year after a lot of research, took the plunge. Everything turned out delicious. My advice to folks is to not feed anyone anything you haven't eaten and had experience with. If you're so sure its good, you be the guinea pig and call me in the morning!
 
I live in a mushroom paradise, for half the year anyway. Two of the more common mushrooms around here (they grow in my yard for crying out loud) are the death cap and destroying angel.

A friend of mine bought a field guide and picked some wild mushrooms for dinner. He got poisoned, went to the ER, spent two days thinking there was an octopus pulling off the walls of his intestines, and recovered.

He took mushroom identification seriously after that. He got professional instruction, learned to do spore counts, read everything there was to read on the subject and became quite the expert compared to the average mushroom hunter.

He got poisoned by the second batch of mushrooms he ate, went to the ER, spent two days thinking there was an octopus pulling off the walls of his intestines, and eventually recovered.

He doesn't eat wild mushrooms anymore. Aside from morels, I don't either.

Interestingly, I read an article by a fellow who, without any attempt at identification, ate wild mushrooms, any wild mushroom he could find, for over a decade before being poisoned. But the area in which he was collecting wasn't overrun with highly toxic mushrooms, either.
 
Other than morrels, I pretty much leave wild mushrooms alone in terms of eating. I enjoy seeing them and enjoy taking photographs as some of the forms are interesting.
 
My grandad could find them easily, but did not want to risk the danger teaching me at 8-10 y.o. If I don't find mine shrink wrapped in the store or on my plate at a restaurant, I pass.
 
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Oyster shrooms are my favorite. Find a local expert to ID them. They are well worth harvesting.
 
If a person is not good at sorting out things visually then they should stick to store bought foods. If you can ID various things like trees by their bark and leaves or flowers by their first sprouted leaves then you may have what it takes to keep mushrooms sorted out by sight. No one should be to quick or confident with it but there are a fair number of edible mushrooms that are reliable and not like any others. Figure out elm oysters, puffballs, chicken of the woods, hen of the woods and morels and if they are there you should have all the mushrooms anyone could ever want.
 
I ate some morels I found this year, first time I ever picked mushrooms and dared to eat them.

I am surprised to find this happening at an assisted living center.
Pardon me for saying so, but how stupid to even take a chance with old people and their compromised immune systems.
You can't even get raw eggs in the home, they have to be pasteurized and the veggies come sealed in #10 cans.
This employee completely (and foolishly) sidestepped the ultra-conservative food handling practices that are standard in assisted living.
 
Maniacal Pete said:
I am surprised to find this happening at an assisted living center.
Pardon me for saying so, but how stupid to even take a chance with old people and their compromised immune systems.
You can't even get raw eggs in the home, they have to be pasteurized and the veggies come sealed in #10 cans.
This employee completely (and foolishly) sidestepped the ultra-conservative food handling practices that are standard in assisted living.
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Very true. Plus anyone could be allergic to a food that is generally safe. Good grief, old folks don't need to be exposed to any more risks, especially at a meal. With meds they take who knows what interactions a food could do to them. I am always warning people that even if a mushroom is safe to eat that doesn't mean you won't bust out in hives or respiratory reactions. No one can know 100% for someone else.
 
Only mushroom I would even think about eating in the wild is Chicken of the Woods.

Nothing else looks like it, but you still need to be careful with chicken of the woods depending on what kind of tree its attached to. IMO best to stay away from mushrooms altogether.
 
Maniacal Pete said:
This employee completely (and foolishly) sidestepped the ultra-conservative food handling practices that are standard in assisted living.
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...and sadly paid the ultimate price themself. Wild mushrooms, as it has been said, are not to be fooled with. It takes me about two years of study for each species before I try them with any certainty. My list is long of shrooms I collect, but I don't often feed them to anyone else.

These are the ones that are generally....
“safe six” mushrooms to collect: “Morels”, “Puff Balls”, “Sulfur Shelves”, “Shaggy Manes”, “Oyster Mushrooms”, & “Hen-of-the-Woods”.
 
mewolf1;11497641These are the ones that are generally.... “safe six” mushrooms to collect: “Morels” said:
Good to know.
I've had puffball (it's great cut in slabs, grilled with olive oil and seasoned with garlic and rosemary), oysters, hens and morels.
If there are not toxic mushrooms that are look-a-likes I think I could pick these out of a line-up and try eating one.
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