Delicious And Potentially Deadly: A Look At The Mushroom That Sickened 14 Californians
Those who ate the "death cap" mushroom got violently sick while some had to get liver transplants after consuming it.
The Washington Post:
Wild 'Death Cap' Mushrooms Sicken 14 People In California — And Often Kill
They sprouted up in abundance after heavy rains, poking up through California lawns and forests, appearing harmless to some of those who found them — as though they'd make a good meal. And so they do, at first. The “death cap” mushroom is said to be delicious. A new federal report detailed what came after consumption for 14 people who sampled the Bay Area's bloom of death cap — or amanita phalloides — last December: Violent nausea, in all cases. For some days later, organ damage as the death caps' potent toxins ravaged the liver. (Selk, 6/3)
USA Today:
'Death Cap' Wild Mushrooms Poison 14 In California
Lethal mushrooms picked in the California wilderness poisoned 14 people late last year, with three requiring liver transplants, including an 18-month-old girl. The cases were reported to the California Poison Control System over a two-week period in December, although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) didn't announce the incidents until Friday. The poisonings were included in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The mushroom is known as the "death cap," or Amanita phalloides, a fungus responsible for more than 90% of the world's mushroom-related deaths. (Rossman, 6/3)