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Four dead and three receive liver transplants after eating death cap mushrooms in California (www.pbs.org)

submitted 4 days ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

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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.

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[-] regedit@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 days ago

Tell me you've never had a newborn without telling me you've never had a newborn. It seams the sole purpose of new born babies is to do everything they can to speed run their existence. It's like watching a potato, that normally coos and rolls around, going full Sea Biscuit the moment you have to attend to anything else.

There's a reason the saying it takes a village to raise a child exists (well, multiple reasons). Anything less than several sets of eyes and it's a matter of when, not if, they eat something they should not. Most of the time it's something benign like dirt or a crumb off the floor. The parents of the child in this article were just unlucky probably! Before having my own, I thought the same way as you and others do about the parents of children who get hurt.

[-] cheesybuddha@lemmy.world -1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Seems to me that you have never had a newborn.

When you have a baby in your home, you make damn sure your house is safe and doesn't have poison accessible to the baby.

It does not "take a village" to put poisonous material in a locked cupboard or other inaccessible area.

this post was submitted on 08 Feb 2026

367 points (98.9% liked)

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