What to do if you get poisoned by wild mushrooms

With the arrival of the rainy season, it is time for wild mushrooms to be available in large quantities. Fungi are generally delicious and can be cooked in a variety of ways. They contain large amounts of trace elements, and the plant protein in wild fungi is easily absorbed. Therefore, they are very suitable for people with weak digestion, such as babies and the elderly, and are also loved by the general public. But not all wild mushrooms are edible. If you fail to correctly identify wild mushrooms, food poisoning is likely to occur.

1. Poisoning Wild Mushrooms

1. Autumn Helmeted Agaric

Also known as Autumn Helmeted Agaric and Autumn Scale Ear, it has small fruiting bodies and grows in groups or clumps on rotten coniferous wood in summer and autumn. It also often appears on sawdust piles in sawmills. This fungus is extremely poisonous. The symptoms of poisoning are similar to those of Amanita phalloides, which causes liver damage and has a very high mortality rate.

2. Amanita phalloides

Also known as white poison cap, scientific name Amanita

pallidorosea), extremely toxic, the poisoning type is liver and kidney damage type, it is a poisonous mushroom with a very high mortality rate. Generally, discomfort will occur 6 to 24 hours after consumption, such as dizziness, fatigue, abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting and other symptoms. There may be a 1-2 day "false recovery period", followed by progressive worsening of the disease, coma, jaundice, anuria and other symptoms. In severe cases, death due to multiple organ failure.

3. Amanita phalloides white variant

It is also a highly poisonous fungus of the Amanita family. This fungus is extremely toxic, and the toxicity is even greater when the fungus is young. The fungus contains two major types of toxins: toxin peptides and amanita phalloidins. The symptoms of poisoning are similar to those of Amanita phalloides, the incubation period is as long as about 24 hours, and the mortality rate of poisoning is extremely high, even 100%.

2. What to do when wild mushroom poisoning occurs

If you feel dizzy, nauseous, vomiting, diarrhea, or other discomfort within a few minutes to three days (72 hours) after eating wild mushrooms, you should highly suspect wild mushroom poisoning and take the following measures immediately:

1. Call the local emergency number immediately and go to the hospital for treatment in time. And tell the doctor the type, time, place and people with whom you consumed wild mushrooms.

2. While waiting for treatment, immediately use simple methods to help the poisoned person induce vomiting and diarrhea: such as drinking large amounts of warm boiled water or dilute salt water, and then using chopsticks, fingers, soup spoons and other hard objects to stimulate the throat to help vomiting, so as to reduce the absorption of toxins, reduce the degree of poisoning, and prevent the condition from worsening. If the diarrhea is mild, you can take a small amount of laxatives to speed up the elimination of toxins. After inducing vomiting, it is best to let the patient drink a small amount of salt and sugar water to replenish lost body fluids and prevent dehydration from leading to shock.

3. Keep wild mushroom samples for reference by professionals during treatment.

4. If the hospital you visit does not have the medical conditions to treat wild mushrooms, the hospital must immediately report to the health administrative department and transfer the patient to a qualified medical institution for treatment as soon as possible.