Deadly lookalikes: Mushroom poisoning surge hits immigrant communities harder

"The day before Christmas Eve, M.G., a 34-year-old Maya Mam immigrant from Guatemala, was walking through a park in the East Oakland hills with her husband and two children when she noticed a cluster of fleshy white mushrooms poking out of the rain-dampened soil. They looked familiar. In the highlands of her native Guatemala, a similar-looking mushroom, known colloquially as a piosh, is commonly foraged from the wild and eaten."

"Around eight hours later, M.G began to feel sick. So did her husband and son. They felt nauseated and were vomiting, and had muscle fatigue and diarrhea, she explained in Mam, a Mayan language, through a translator. Their symptoms worsened as the day wore on. Her husband's condition, in particular, deteriorated rapidly."

"By evening, they went to the hospital, where they learned the source of their sudden decline. The mushroom was not the edible variety M.G thought she recognized from Guatemala, but rather, a highly toxic lookalike common in California: the death cap."

A 34-year-old Maya Mam immigrant from Guatemala found mushrooms in an East Oakland park that resembled piosh mushrooms commonly foraged in her native highlands. Believing them to be the same edible variety, she collected and cooked them for her family's dinner. She, her husband, and teenage son consumed the dish and became severely ill within eight hours, experiencing nausea, vomiting, muscle fatigue, and diarrhea. Their conditions deteriorated rapidly, prompting a hospital visit where they discovered the mushrooms were actually death caps, highly toxic lookalikes common in California. The family's toddler avoided serious illness by spitting out the mushroom after tasting it.

Read at www.eltimpano.org