Newton mother, son hospitalized after eating wild mushrooms
A Newton mother and son remain hospitalized in good condition five days after they consumed poisonous mushrooms picked in a Newton neighborhood.
The woman and her adult son ate what officials believe was a type of Amanita mushroom sometimes called "death angel" in a meal on Thursday, said Newton Health Commissioner David Naparstek.
On Tuesday afternoon, the pair were listed in good condition at Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center, said hospital spokesman Jerry Berger.
The woman, Russian by origin, picked the mushrooms in an open field in the city's Oak Hill section near her home, Neaton officials said.
Newton officials made the case public today in order to warn the public about the dangers of eating wild mushrooms, which can cause liver and kidney damage, and occasionally death.
The wet, cool summer and fall has made for a particularly abundant crop of wild mushrooms across the state, Naparstek said.
"The message we want to send is that the mushrooms in your backyard can be very pretty, but also very deadly. Don't eat them," he said.
The Regional Center for Poison Control, based at Children's Hospital in Boston, said of the 195,000 calls it has handled since 2006 from Massachusetts, only 630 have been questions from citizens or health care providers about a potentially dangerous mushrooms.
Of those calls, 136 cases were referred to a health care provider for further treatment, said spokeswoman Colleen Longfellow.
Callers are encouraged to snap a cell phone photo of a questionable mushroom, whenever possible, as well as asked to collect a sample in a bag for further study, she said.
An emailed photo of a potentially deadly mushroom can be examined by one of the agency's mushroom experts, called mycologists, often within an hour, she said.
Foraging for mushrooms is a popular hobby, especially among Eastern Europeans. In the former Soviet Union, families pass down mushroom hunting lore from parent to child, said Russ Cohen, a member of the Boston Mycological Club and author of a book on edible plants.
Amanita is "very, very nasty" he said, a genus accounting for more than 90 percent of all reported wild mushroom fatalities, he said. Even many mushroom experts avoid them, Cohen said.
"We tell people they should absolutely avoid picking wild mushrooms. And anyone with any concerns should call us immediately," said Longfellow.
Homeowners with small children who want to remove wild mushrooms from their yards can do so with a shovel and a bag, but should wash their hands carefully afterwards to prevent any accidental hand-mouth contact or ingestion, Longfellow said.
The toll free number for Poison Control is 1-800-222-1222.
Town correspondent Caitlin Castello contributed to this report. Erica Noonan can be reached at enoonan@globe.com
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It is very dangerous to pick mushrooms because you can be poisoned very quickly and die. Your best bet is to get them from your farmer's market or the grocery store
there is no danger in eating wild mushrooms if you have certainly in what you are doing. which these people did not.
What is wrong with these people? I don't know of ANYONE who would eat wild mushrooms and not expect to get sick! Thats just their own stupidity!
She ate mushrooms she didn't identify first. She had her family eat them.
Here's an anti-toast to those Bozos who encourage people to eat "free" food from the sidewalk cracks. Free, indeed.
I hope this family heals quickly - and learns!
Anyone that knows anything about mushrooms knows that Amenitas are poisonous and must be blanched before consuming. Then, enjoy the ride ;-)
There's nothing stupid about eating wild mushrooms if you know what you are doing.
She should have watched that movie "know your mushroom".
The mushrooms from the market are the worse, but they won't kill you I suppose.
I just wanted to mention that being russian myself, I know that most russians usually can tell bad mushroom from good edible one, as picking wild mushrooms is extremely popular in Russia. However, I tried to google the mushrooms they ate by their names and they are 100% bad bad bad mushrooms. So I do not know what they were thinking...
Mushroom picking is a traditional activity in much of Eastern Europe, and most kids who grow up there are trained to recognized edible mushrooms from the time they learn to walk. That said, people obviously make mistakes.
As for the poster that thinks Russia is a third world country and assumes that this family has no money to pay for their hospital stay ... well, obviously you've never been to Russia or lived in Newton.
I'm surprised she made a mistake with Aminita, which probably most hikers around here know is a bad one. Maybe it looks similar to a safe one she knew in Russia.
But User 1234 is right, lots of wild mushrooms are safe, & actually there are few in this area that are dangerous. But yeah, you HAVE to know what you're doing! There are botanists who give guided hikes about this stuff & nobody should try it just from a guidebook either.
Clearly the woman picked the wrong mushroom. However, it's not strange at all for people to forage for wild mushrooms. If you pulled your head out of your butt and looked beyond your own puny little world you might know that plenty of people do this instead of thinking it's the strangest/stupidest thing on earth or only for third-worlders.
Hopefully someone is giving them milk thistle, which is extremely effective and used all over the world for this type of mushroom poisoning. It is easy to misidentify mushrooms. Know what you are doing ... good advice for picking mushrooms and for commenting on the actions of others.
Growing up in Germany we ate wild mushrooms all fall long. As mentioned before you learn how to recognize them as a child. And they taste sooo good!
Now - I have seen many mushrooms in US forests that looked similar to the ones we eat back home. But I have never picked any for fear they were poisonous. You have to know what you are doing and if you are not trained in recognizing plants in the country you live you can't eat them. This applies to all kinds of berries, fruit, roots and even fish. So I agree what were these people thinking...
I think the mushroom genus the article meant to refer to was Amanita not Aminita. Amanita virosa is referred to as Destroying Angel.
When I visited Russia, I noticed the "mushroom ladies" who gather mushrooms and sell their wild harvest in the markets. Presumably they know how to identify the poisonous ones.
It's important for Russian immigrants to recognize that the mushrooms found in North America aren't the same as the mushrooms found in Russia.
I've been picking and eating wild mushrooms since I in my early teens as it is a family tradition. Bottom line is you pick and eat what you know. Throw everything else out!
My mother is from Italy and knows how to pick mushrooms. I have eaten plenty of wild mushrooms and lived to tell the tale of how delicious they are. Amateurs should not toy with mushroom picking, which is why I buy mine at the grocery store. My mother learned the tricks of her trade from generations before her, who had to rely on the fruits of the land for sustenance. Mushroom picking is not to be taken lightly if you value your life.
I was taught at a very early age never to eat wild mushrooms. I thought this was the norm. Seems like common sense to me. I was also taught not to eat just ANY wild berries. Bluberrys..ok, rasberries..ok, blackberries..ok..You get the drift. I did not grow up in a home for Genuses, but you got to admit it is sortoff stupid to just eat any old thing off the ground unless you know for sure it's not going to kill you.
They ate a Destroying Angel, which is a amanita variety. I've been eating wild mushrooms from the forest all summer and fall but, I know what I'm doing, what were they thinking.
Please do not deluge your local poison center or local mushroom experts with cell phone photos. Most cell phone photos are really bad, especially of mushrooms. If you care enough about your own safety, join a local mycological society like the Boston Mycological Club (no, I'm not connected with that organization) and learn about mushrooms. This is a complicated subject, requiring study over a period of years, but by working with knowledgeable members you will learn a few to safely enjoy every year.
To clarify a few misunderstandings: botanists will probably know very little about mushrooms. Fungi have their own kingdom, and are closer to the animal kingdom than to plants. Mycologists are what you need.
It is widely believed that people who have learned to collect from family members and friends "know" what they are collecting. I handle many calls from people who say, "But I've been eating these all my life!" "Not these!", I reply. While most mushrooms are not poisonous it is important not to get too confident.
Poisonous mushrooms cannot poison you if you simply handle them. There is no need to wear gloves or use a shovel.
Regarding the belief that Europeans know mushrooms so well that they are safe from poisonings: A report from the World Health Organization a few years ago stated that while food poisoning was not a serious problem in Europe, poisonings by wild mushrooms was, resulting in hundreds of deaths every year. The mortality rate in the U.S. in over the last 100 years has averaged fewer than 1.5 per year. Most victims are adults who made a mistake in identification.
The advice about the efficacy of milk thistle is still unproven. These poisonings are so rare that when they occur every treatment in the book is thrown at them. No controlled studies, of course. With aggressive supportive care the mortality rate drops from 50% (untreated) to 12% or less. Those figures seem to hold true regardless of whether injectable milk thistle extract was used or not. In the past, thioctic acid was the treatment of choice in Europe. Before that, years ago, rabbit brains were prescribed. Why? because rabbits and some other animals seemed to be immune to amatoxins.
Join a mushroom society to improve your odds. You'll enjoy it.
Fun-gal
The mushrooms in grocery stores were wild once, too....they were identified as safe and farmed for mass production. Millions of people throughout the world eat wild mushrooms...after they've educated themselves (guides available) as to their safety.
DO NOT EAT _ANY_ WILD MUSHROOMS. You are never sure what you are eating because most will cross with any spores that land on them. Ask the mycologists if any of them have ever died eating mushrooms and you will find the truth. Identifying mushrooms cannot be done without chemical analysis because of their nature to cross.
It's better to be safe than need a liver transplant or die from an innocent mistake. The risk reward relationship is not worth it. Just go to the grocery store and get some safe mushrooms.
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