3 Dead After Eating Wild Mushrooms

[rdhopkins2]

Sad new in Victoria with 3 people dead after it is believed they consumed wild mushrooms.

A good reminder about the dangers & to teach your kids not to eat anything found in the wild.

https://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/news/police-probe-suspected-poisoning-after-two-dead-in-rural-victoria/news-story/aa99028b4c12b6f251c2a52c2d0d6635

Edit: Homicide police now investigating. Surely this wasn’t a deliberate poisoning?!

 

[PJays]

Very sad.

RIP to the deceased, wonderful community minded people by all accounts.

If it's homicide it's mass murder.

I doubt that. More likely the investigators are just ticking their boxes and following process.

 

[Frank Bunn]

Where's the evidence that mushrooms were involved?

 

[mr bagcroft]

Where's the evidence that mushrooms were involved?

err, they were eating mushrooms?

 

[Frank Bunn]

err, they were eating mushrooms?

Where's the evidence for that?

 

[mr bagcroft]

Where's the evidence for that?

I dunno, on the ****ing table?
You think they are making it up??

 

[PJays]

Where's the evidence that mushrooms were involved?

Biological testing from hospital samples.

 

[Frank Bunn]

I dunno, on the ******* table?
You think they are making it up??

The media make up stories all the time. I'm not saying it's not true that it was due to poisonous mushrooms but the reports are very light on detail.

 

[Pickitt]

The media make up stories all the time. I'm not saying it's not true that it was due to poisonous mushrooms but the reports are very light on detail.

Why would they be heavy on detail 1 day into the case

 

[Caesar]

The media make up stories all the time.

if you think the story is made up it is kind of incumbent on you to prove it, not vice versa

 

[PJays]

The media make up stories all the time. I'm not saying it's not true that it was due to poisonous mushrooms but the reports are very light on detail.

The media has stated tests were done in hospital after it became apparent the issue was worse than a standard bad bout of gastro.

 

[Frank Bunn]

The media has stated tests were done in hospital after it became apparent the issue was worse than a standard bad bout of gastro.

What media was that?

 

[CD Xbow]

Terribly sad. This is almost certainly Amanita Phalloides poisoning and almost certainly accidental, they look very much like some field mushrooms. It happens every few years in Oz. The toxins are nasty and there is no antidote. Supportive treatment only and a liver if you can get one, many folks still die, as in this case. It's the reason you really have to very careful picking field mushrooms.

 

[Shell]

Or.... not pick them at all.

 

[PJays]

What media was that?

Here's one example from The Herald Sun

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/victoria-police-probe-suspected-mass-poisoning-in-leongatha/news-story/44a2326e29d4e35af1c1effc6f374f49

"It’s understood the victims initially believed they were suffering from gastro before they were transferred to The Alfred hospital and the toxins were discovered".

 

[Frank Bunn]

Here's one example from The Herald Sun

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/victoria-police-probe-suspected-mass-poisoning-in-leongatha/news-story/44a2326e29d4e35af1c1effc6f374f49

"It’s understood the victims initially believed they were suffering from gastro before they were transferred to The Alfred hospital and the toxins were discovered".

We're going round in circles. It's a media story that so far has no link to evidence of toxic mushrooms.

 

[CD Xbow]

We're going round in circles. It's a media story that so far has no link to evidence of toxic mushrooms.

The story is 100% consistent with Amanita Phallodes poisoning, they are reported to have consumed mushrooms then became ill with 'gastro' over the next day or so. They became sicker and were transferred to the Alfred where they are reported to have identified Amatoxins. I'm sure their livers and kidneys would be cooked. Not sure why you are having a problem with it, it's not uncommon, every few years this happens. Unfortunately the Amatoxins are heat stable, so cooking them doesn't destroy them. It used to be thought that they only grew with Oak trees, but that is not the case. It's doubly unfortunate they look like some edible field mushrooms. They deserve their name 'Death cap'

 

[Shell]

What a terrible way to go.

 

[mr bagcroft]

We're going round in circles. It's a media story that so far has no link to evidence of toxic mushrooms.

Well it was probably aliens in partnership with Elvis and Marilyn Monroe harvesting human DNA and they decided to destroy the evidence.

 

[PJays]

We're going round in circles. It's a media story that so far has no link to evidence of toxic mushrooms.

The media is reporting that "toxins were discovered" by the Alfred hospital

What are you expecting to see exactly, a copy of the toxicology report!?

 

[Dogs_R_Us]

Terribly sad. This is almost certainly Amanita Phalloides poisoning and almost certainly accidental, they look very much like some field mushrooms. It happens every few years in Oz. The toxins are nasty and there is no antidote. Supportive treatment only and a liver if you can get one, many folks still die, as in this case. It's the reason you really have to very careful picking field mushrooms.

Aren't most people a bit wary of eating field fungi, including toadstools? These ones are white underneath, from the images I just looked for. We were always told to avoid eating mushrooms that weren't brown or pink underneath. It's not something a lot of people would think of. Maybe the cook found a crop in a field nearby and thought they would be edible. Perhaps she'd found edible ones in the same area in the past.

 

[CD Xbow]

Aren't most people a bit wary of eating field fungi, including toadstools? These ones are white underneath, from the images I just looked for. We were always told to avoid eating mushrooms that weren't brown or pink underneath. It's not something a lot of people would think of. Maybe the cook found a crop in a field nearby and thought they would be edible. Perhaps she'd found edible ones in the same area in the past.

As you say, misidentification is easy, likely and occurs frequently. It's so hard to be sure that I won't eat field mushrooms any more.

 

[Plugger35]

I could maybe understand people eating wild mushrooms if they thought they were magic mushrooms but if they are just eating them as a food then surely they would be better off just buying mushrooms from a store, at least you know they are safe and won't kill you.

 

[Awakening]

I find it strange that the cook is the only who didn’t die or get ill. I’m assuming they didn’t eat any.

Maybe the dinner guests were unaware the mushrooms weren’t from Coles.

 

[Gough]

Maybe they were canned mushrooms?