HA NOI – Doctors have warned the public to be extra careful when eating wild mushrooms following the deaths of four people in northern provinces over the weekend.
Most cases of mushroom poisoning are fatal, according to doctor at Bach Mai Hospital’s Detoxicfication, Nguyen Trung Nguyen.
Pregnant
woman dies
SON LA – A pregnant woman has died and seven more people are recovering in hospital after eating poisonous mushrooms in Chieng Ly Ward, Son La Province.
The victims, all from the same family, were admitted to the provincial General Hospital earlier this week.
According to a doctor at the hospital Nguyen Thi Son Ha, 18-year-old Ha Quang Thi Dua was treated in the emergency ward but died two hours later. She was five months pregnant.
A relative of the victim, Quang Van Phong, said the eight had picked the mushrooms in the forest. A few hours after eating them they began to vomit and have diarrhoea. – VNS
Last weekend a woman from the Dao ethnic minority, Duong Thi Dinh, and her two sons were rushed from northern Phu Tho Province Hospital to Ha Noi’s Bach Mai Hospital after eating poisonous mushrooms.
Dinh and her younger son recovered after receiving blood transfusions but her elder child lapsed into a coma and died after two days, the doctor said.
Three more people in Yen Bai Province died on arrival at the Detoxicfication Centre. Doctors at the centre are currently treating another three cases from Ha Giang Province. The victims have suffered serious liver damage.
"Mushroom poisoning is not only dangerous, it is also very expensive to treat, said Nguyen. "As soon as the liver is affected, patients have to have blood transfusions. The cost of this can rack up to tens of millions of dong, and that’s on top of fees for other medical services."
Tempting danger
Most of the victims digested large, white mushrooms which they believed were edible, Nguyen said.
Trang Van Thuy from Ha Giang Province said she was totally unaware the mushrooms she cooked for her family were poisonous.
"My father said we could eat them so I made the mushrooms into soup and everyone had a bowl," she said.
It might look tasty, but the head of the mushroom contained a poison that could cause multiple organ failure, Nguyen said.
"Symptoms are complicated and difficult to diagnose quickly. After about 12 hours victims feel sick and start vomiting. But this will ease up after a few days and patients begin to feel better. This is very deceiving, because actually there could be internal bleeding in the liver and kidneys. This is usually what kills people."
Watch out
"Spring is a particularly bad time of year for mushroom poisoning," said director of the centre Pham Due.
"With the drizzling rain, mushrooms grow everywhere. At this time the centre treats dozens of patients for mushroom poisoning in northern provinces."
Poisonous mushrooms can be colourful and look delicious but people should never pick mushrooms if they are not totally sure what kind it is, doctors say.
There are two kinds of poisonous mushroom that are particularly common now, warn doctors. One causes symptoms around two hours after digestion. In this case, all patients need to do is drink a lot of water. If the patient starts to feel ill six hours or more after eating the mushrooms they should contact the nearest hospital as quickly as possible.
Pharmacist Tran Xuan Thuyet advised that while waiting for an ambulance, patients should induce vomiting, drink water and eat coal, liquorice and green beans to help neutralise the poison. — VNS
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