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.
Sorry I care about keeping people safe, it won’t happen again.
I won’t see any more of your messages, I say again you are being way too “hobby enthusiast” when we’re talking about people who have already died from eating wild mushrooms. It’s not a place for dissecting nuance and details for broader public who knows far less than you. Again, you are embodying my last point and muddying very basic safety instructions given to me by a fucking mycologist for talking to average people who might be interested in the hobby with no experience. You are either dense or obtuse or both.
You seem to care more about your hobby than people’s lives, and that’s just fucking weird, and I don’t want to interact anymore because I suspect you might be a very weird person and I am wasting my energy trying to get you to see reality through human eyes.
No mycologist would suggest you should misinform. Full stop.