Dangerous wild “death cap” mushrooms in California have poisoned more than a dozen people, including some who required liver transplants and a toddler who suffered permanent brain damage, according to a new report.
The deadly spore — named Amanita phalloides — is believed to be the world’s most dangerous mushroom, but is often confused with perfectly edible straw and Caesar’s mushrooms.
Fourteen people were sickened last year after a bumper crop of the mushrooms, caused by abundant rainfall and warm weather, popped up in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, according to a study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report that was published Friday.
Three had to undergo liver transplants — including the 18-month-old child, who chowed down on just half a mushroom cap. The baby girl was left with permanent brain damage.
The tot’s 26-year-old mother said the toxic ‘shrooms were given to her by a “person she did not know, who reportedly picked them earlier in the day in the mountains,” the study said.
The mom had grilled the mushrooms for her husband, their young daughter, her sister and a pal — who all had nausea, vomiting and diarrhea within the next day.
The death cap’s amatoxins — toxic compounds — are able to withstand heat from cooking and quickly damage cells in the body once eaten, according to Britannica.
Others who were sickened ranged in age from 19 to 93, and ate varying quantities of the mushroom, including a “shot” of mushroom juice and as many as eight caps.
A 37-year-old man who’d picked two wild mushrooms in Santa Rosa was hospitalized for six days after eating just one, according to the study.
Coma and death occur in more than 50 percent of those poisoned.
Death cap poisonings have been reported in California, Oregon and New York. The mushroom is common in the San Francisco Bay Area, but rare in most parts of North America.