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.
You have a point with the “gets you outdoors and learning your land” thing. When I worked at a nursing home, sometimes we brought the residents into a courtyard. One of the ladies loved going around and spotting different types of mushrooms. Not to eat, just to observe. We were impressed with how many different ones we found in such a small area, which makes me wonder how many more I’d be able to see if I were to go into the nearby woods. Either way, it was a pleasant way to enjoy the outdoors, especially as this was during the Covid lockdown when we couldn’t even take day trips out of the facility.