Australia - 3 dead after eating wild mushrooms, Leongatha, Victoria, Aug 2023 #4

[Ellery84]

Exactly. Kids are not likely to eat dried mushrooms. Neither are adults for that matter.

Maybe she re-hydrated them.

 

[RickshawFan]

Even if the family friend is correct about EP being an experienced mushroom forager it may be irrelevant unless it’s possible to identify a death cap once it’s dried.

I don’t know the answer but just looking at dried edible mushrooms in real life and in photos only a few are easily identifiable (by me) like chanterelles or shitakes. If death caps are difficult to identify when fresh it might be quite a challenge when they’re dried.

That’s assuming EP told the truth in her statement about the source of the mushrooms. I have doubts but there’s not much else to go on right now.
MOO

They don't seem to be that difficult to identify. I'll re-post a mod- approved video:

 

[jjenny]

Maybe she re-hydrated them.

We are talking about storing the mushrooms in dry form. You don't rehydrate them if you want to store them. You dry them then put them into a bag or a jar and they can store for quite a while.

 

[LordCyrus]

An unknown person entered her house and tampered with the contents of her pantry to frame her.

 

[jjenny]

An unknown person entered her house and tampered with the contents of her pantry to frame her.

I hate when that happens.

 

[kittythehare]

The kind of milk thistle they use in treating Death Cap poisoning is called silibinin.

The reason that I said "if available" is because I had read an Australian study where they were following the progress of treatment of 10 Death Cap poisoning patients and they stated the following:


"Silibinin supply was exhausted during the treatment of one patient, who was subsequently given oral silymarin ...."
"Maintaining a supply of silibinin to treat patients was a challenge due to the clustering of events ....."
"Additional stock was urgently required for the cluster of four patients ...."

"Decisions regarding stock holdings of silibinin require consideration of cost (about $1400/day/patient), stock expiration, and time to obtain replacement or additional stock (potentially long, as it is not marketed in Australia). Our experience suggests that Poisons Information Centre knowledge of silibinin stocks, and rapid communication with the distributor and hospitals is required."

Amanita phalloides poisoning and treatment with silibinin in the Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales

A review of clinical records of patients treated in Canberra and Sydney identified 10 patients who were likely to have suffered “deathcap” mushroom poisoning between 1999 and 2012. Despite treatment according to current standards, including use of the purported antidote silibinin, eight...

www.mja.com.au

That's correct.

 

[MsMarple]

They don't seem to be that difficult to identify. I'll re-post a mod- approved video:

I was talking about dried death cap mushrooms not fresh. My point was that when I looked at various dried mushrooms a lot of varieties were hard to tell apart. Many just looked like beige dried out nuggets.

I’m not sure about death caps since they’re not sold anywhere but possibly they could be difficult to identify when dried.

But yeah, like the guy in the video said, fresh death caps have telltale white gills and although some edible ones also have white gills the advice is to skip them all. Nearly every source I’ve seen about mushrooms offers the same advice.

 

[kittythehare]

An unknown person entered her house and tampered with the contents of her pantry to frame her.

A possibility, for sure.
We know nothing about her social circle, nothing at all.
Actually, we know almost nothing at all about the whole thing.

We don't even know for sure that death caps were the culprit.
We don't know whether the lunch was the culprit either, only that it is something the 4 victims enjoyed together.
We do not know what else they shared.

 

[jjenny]

I was talking about dried death cap mushrooms not fresh. My point was that when I looked at various dried mushrooms a lot of varieties were hard to tell apart. Many just looked like beige dried out nuggets.

I’m not sure about death caps since they’re not sold anywhere but possibly they could be difficult to identify when dried.

But yeah, like the guy in the video said, fresh death caps have telltale white gills and although some edible ones also have white gills the advice is to skip them all. Nearly every source I’ve seen about mushrooms offers the same advice.

Who is selling dried death cap mushrooms?

 

[Forest_Wood]

A possibility, for sure.
We know nothing about her social circle, nothing at all.
Actually, we know almost nothing at all about the whole thing.

We don't even know for sure that death caps were the culprit.
We don't know whether the lunch was the culprit either, only that it is something the 4 victims enjoyed together.
We do not know what else they shared.

I've been wondering if they ate dinner/supper that night. I haven't seen anything about that. Since they were at Erin's place for lunch, I would think they may have eaten again, maybe as a foursome together.

 

[jjenny]

I've been wondering if they ate dinner/supper that night. I haven't seen anything about that. Since they were at Erin's place for lunch, I would think they may have eaten again, maybe as a foursome together.

Something tells me the were not in the mood for dinner that night. Symptoms start 4-6 hours after eating.

 

[kittythehare]

I've been wondering if they ate dinner/supper that night. I haven't seen anything about that. Since they were at Erin's place for lunch, I would think they may have eaten again, maybe as a foursome together.

Wondering too.
How far apart are the two places? I'm wondering how long the car journey took and whether they used one or two vehicles.

 

[Forest_Wood]

Something tells me the were not in the mood for dinner that night. Symptoms start 4-6 hours after eating.O

One of the videos posted here said the first symptoms were around 11pm? Have you seen otherwise?

 

[MsMarple]

Who is selling dried death cap mushrooms?

No, I said they’re not sold anywhere, not dried not fresh not in any shape or form.

Let me rephrase… I have no idea what dried death cap mushrooms look like but based on dried edible mushrooms I’ve seen, many varieties (of edibles) look alike. It’s just an observation.

Could EP have unknowingly purchased a bag of dried death cap mushrooms from an unidentified Asian market? I doubt it. I’m just saying I don’t know if they’re easy to spot once they’re dried.

 

[Forest_Wood]

I was thinking about it, but it had to be the adult to use the dehydrator and make the paste? Or is it very easy?

I'm not really sure what you're asking here? I was referring to the dried mushrooms that were in her pantry or fridge that she said she got from the Asian store.

 

[Forest_Wood]

No, I said they’re not sold anywhere, not dried not fresh not in any shape or form.

Let me rephrase… I have no idea what dried death cap mushrooms look like but based on dried edible mushrooms I’ve seen, many varieties (of edibles) look alike. It’s just an observation.

Could EP have unknowingly purchased a bag of dried death cap mushrooms from an unidentified Asian market? I doubt it. I’m just saying I don’t know if they’re easy to spot once they’re dried.

I agree dried mushrooms look similar when dried, especially if they're no longer one entire piece and broken up into pieces. It's similar to dried hot peppers, once they're broken apart in a bag, it's hard to tell what kind they are.

 

[jjenny]

I agree dried mushrooms look similar when dried, especially if they're no longer one entire piece and broken up into pieces. It's similar to dried hot peppers, once they're broken apart in a bag, it's hard to tell what kind they are.

But dried death caps are said to have an ammonia smell.

 

[al66pine]

They don't seem to be that difficult to identify. I'll re-post a mod- approved video:

@RickshawFan Thx for reposting this vid.
Interesting, esp'ly ~ 4:30 to 5:30 into vid, his comments about morbidity & mortality.

 

[Sabex]

It's been found that Amazon is selling misleading mushroom foraging books, written by AI.

Mushroom pickers urged to avoid foraging books on Amazon that appear to be written by AI

Sample of books scored 100% on AI detection test as experts warn they contain dangerous advice

www.theguardian.com

 

[SouthAussie]

Wondering too.
How far apart are the two places? I'm wondering how long the car journey took and whether they used one or two vehicles.

The two towns of Leongatha and Korumburra are just a 12 min drive apart.

Google maps

I will just add a little further info about the two towns that I had looked up earlier out of interest.

Leongatha has a population of 5.876 (in 2022) Link
Korumburra has a population of 4,749 (from 2021 census) Link

Both very small towns - the kind where everyone knows everyone. imo

I grew up in a similar size town, there wasn't anything we would get away with as kids. Our parents knew what we were up to before we even got home, it seems.
The kind of town where a strange vehicle would be noticed, and people would wonder who was visiting from out of town or if someone had bought a new car.