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I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)

blog.mycology.cornell.edu

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Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)

#51

Post by linuskendall »

ayakura wrote: post #2

When I was younger, I was taught not to pick up or eat colorful mushrooms - the more colors they had, the deadlier they were, supposedly. At the time, I thought it made sense as the same rule applied for poisonous frogs. After reading the article and looking at Wikipedia's list of deadly fungus species, I'm not so sure if that rule also applies to mushrooms: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deadly_fungus_species

We were taught to avoid white mushrooms, as in our area the poisionous ones you might mistake for edible ones are white.

Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)

#52

Post by Alex3917 »

hcarvalhoalves wrote: post #45

> I found out that of three people admitted in 2006 to Strong Memorial with Amanita poisoning (...) Three people poisoning themselves in the span of one year in a particular region sounds like a lot .

> Three people poisoning themselves in the span of one year in a particular region sounds like a lot.

Mushrooms of any given species usually have mast years every few years in a given area, so when that happens it's not uncommon to have a bunch of people poisoned in an area in a given year. E.g. it happened two years ago in CA, and it happened in New England after Irene.

In the 40+ year history of amateur mycology clubs in the U.S. though no member of one has ever died from mushroom poisoning (although a few have come close). The victims are usually just toddlers grazing in the back yard, plus immigrants eating things that look similar to what they eat in their home countries.

Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)

#53

Post by catalogia »

tapland wrote: post #49
Thorrez wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was in the section wondering why he survived but the other 2 people in the same hospital didn't. Would those 2 people have gotten different doctors or gotten less effort from the doctors?

"I found out that of three people admitted in 2006 to Strong Memorial with Amanita poisoning, I am the only one to have survived; 66% died." The death rate for Mushroom Poisoning in the US was apparently something like 2.9 per year since year 2000. He's really just discounting the 99.something% who survive for effect because two died in the hospital he was at. If that is even true.

> "the 99.something% who survive"

For this mushroom, it's certainly worse than that. It seems likely to me somebody quoted him the "without medical attention" survival rate.

> "Mushroom poisoning is more common in Europe than in America.[71] Up to the mid-20th century, the mortality rate was around 60–70%, but this has been greatly reduced with advances in medical care. A review of death cap poisoning throughout Europe from 1971 to 1980 found the overall mortality rate to be 22.4% (51.3% in children under ten and 16.5% in those older than ten).[72] This has fallen further in more recent surveys to around 10–15%.[73]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita_phalloides#Similarity_...

Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)

#54

Post by Alex3917 »

dmurray wrote: post #19
throwaway2048 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are essentially no general hard and fast rules like that when it comes to mushroom hunting, there is no substitute for knowing how to positively identify specific species, where specific species should be growing, and knowing what distinguishes them from similar poisonous species.

I don't see why this could possibly get downvoted, it's absolutely true. If you do have a "hard and fast" rule in mind, it may work in your region but not in other places.

> If you do have a "hard and fast" rule in mind, it may work in your region but not in other places.

There are lots of hard and fast rules in different regions though that do work if you can ID the mushroom to genus. E.g. in New England, no green mushrooms in the Russula genus are poisonous.

Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)

#55

Post by amatecha »

somehnguy wrote: post #31
jpuderer wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A surprising number of people seem to think that. No correlation AFAICT. Some of the best mushrooms are colorful (eg. chanterelles).

Chanterelles are great because there are only 2 other mushrooms that are even close in resemblance and neither of them is particularly poisonous. One just tastes bad and the other will cause a stomach ache. They're also very easy to tell apart from the real deal even for a novice like me. Harvested and ate a bunch a few weekends ago with a buddy. Delicious.

Word - I just foraged a bunch of them recently! Once you find them, more are usually nearby! Also, once you've had them on hand enough, it becomes easy to identify them with a very high degree of certainty.

Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)

#56

Post by 40four »

kwasson wrote: post #37
cm2012 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No mushroom exists in the world that can poison you through touching it. Even licking. Your body has to digest it. Edit: I'm currently at -5 but this is a fact. http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/wong/BOT135/Lect17a.htm http://www.mushroomexpert.com/studying.html#odortaste https://www.reddit.com/r/mycology/comments/2ps3q5/are_there_...

There is one mushroom called the Poison Fire Coral that can poison through touch. It just made the news rounds for being found for the first time in North Queensland. https://www.jcu.edu.au/news/releases/2019/october/deadly-fun...

Wow! So deadly, but so beautiful!

I love mushrooms!

Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)

#57

Post by solveit »

tapland wrote: post #49
Thorrez wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was in the section wondering why he survived but the other 2 people in the same hospital didn't. Would those 2 people have gotten different doctors or gotten less effort from the doctors?

"I found out that of three people admitted in 2006 to Strong Memorial with Amanita poisoning, I am the only one to have survived; 66% died." The death rate for Mushroom Poisoning in the US was apparently something like 2.9 per year since year 2000. He's really just discounting the 99.something% who survive for effect because two died in the hospital he was at. If that is even true.

Mushroom poisoning and Amanita poisoning are very different things.

Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)

#58

Post by Alex3917 »

catalogia wrote: post #6

> "With early diagnosis, another experimental treatment includes massive doses of penicillin to stimulate the liver’s defenses." The solution to fungus is... more fungus! Really goes to show the incredible breadth of this form of life.

I mean the main cure is milk thistle extract, I think the penicillin is/was just thought to potentiate it slightly if you can't get silbinin intravenously. In the U.S. it's still not FDA approved, so IIRC if you get poisoned you need to somehow get to Washington DC because that's where the clinical trial is happening.

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00915681

Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)

#59

Post by taneq »

rectangletangle wrote: post #21

Although it's not quite the same thing, this reminds me a bit of amnesic shellfish poisoning. In addition to all the terrible gastric problems ASP has the curious side-effect of severe permanent anterograde amnesia, where all memories before the incident are retrained, but the poisoned individual can't create new long term memories. So they're limited to working memory which only lasts a few seconds. However research…

Well you can add that to my list of horrifying potential outcomes of being human.

> For instance if an amnesiac individual is asked to draw the same image repeatedly, they may still improve in speed and efficiency without any conscious memory of drawing the image.

So it's basically a human version of cache timing attacks. O.o

Re: I Survived the “Destroying Angel” (2006)

#60

Post by Alex3917 »

cbhl wrote: post #34
cm2012 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No mushroom exists in the world that can poison you through touching it. Even licking. Your body has to digest it. Edit: I'm currently at -5 but this is a fact. http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/wong/BOT135/Lect17a.htm http://www.mushroomexpert.com/studying.html#odortaste https://www.reddit.com/r/mycology/comments/2ps3q5/are_there_...

Even if you touch it and then lick your fingers?

At least in the U.S. and Canada, there are no mushrooms where if a healthy adult nibbles on them to taste them and then spits them out, they will be anywhere close to the LD50. You might still get some minor liver damage or whatever, but not enough to kill you. This is as opposed to plants, where people have died just from putting water hemlock twigs in their mouths to play with.

There are a bunch of similar-looking species where the proper way to ID them to know if they're edible or not is actually to nibble on them and then just spit them out.

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