critical condition due to mushroom poisoning
The 37-year-old male patient in Lam Binh, Tuyen Quang, said that about 9 days before going to Bach Mai Hospital, he and 3 friends went into the forest to plant trees and discovered a strange mushroom. They pick mushrooms to cook soups and steep. About 8-9 hours later (from 8pm the previous night to 4-5am the next morning), the patient and the two friends began to feel abdominal pain, dizziness, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea many times.
The three people were taken to a local hospital by their families for treatment. The two friends recovered quickly and were discharged from the hospital, while the patient continued to experience jaundice, yellow eyes, and severe fatigue and had to be transferred to the Poison Control Center - Bach Mai Hospital for further treatment.
At the Poison Control Center, the patient was alert but confused, showing signs of pre-canada liver, skin and yellow eye lumps, poor appetite. Tests showed serious liver and kidney damage. The patient continued to feel nauseous and had a stomachache.
After receiving emergency care, blood filtration, huyet tuong replacement and detoxification drugs, the patient regained consciousness. He said he often picked mushrooms to eat when dividing the plants, but this time, after eating mushrooms that grew on the ground and resembled an umbrella, he encountered severe poisoning. Currently, the patient is still anorexia and has lost 4-5kg in 9 days.
In another case, a 57-year-old female patient from Ngan Son, Bac Kan, went into the forest on March 11 to pick a handful of white mushrooms, then brought them home to cook soup and eat alone. About 13 hours later (from 8pm the previous night to 9am the next morning), the patient started vomiting, had a stomachache and had frequent loose stools.
After being taken to a local hospital by his family, the patient was diagnosed with mushroom poisoning and was given an IV, then transferred to Bach Mai Hospital. Here, the patient was conscious but still continued to feel nauseous, had abdominal pain around the navel and had discharge 8-10 times. Tests showed that the patient had severe hepatitis, acute liver failure and needed emergency treatment with detox drugs and huyet tuong replacement.
The female patient said that the mushroom she picked was white, shaped like an umbrella, as long as a finger and the mushroom head was slightly round. She often picked mushrooms in the forest to eat but had never encountered poisoning like this time.
Doctor Nguyen Tien Dat - Center for Anti-Poison - said that the blood test results of the patients showed many abnormal indicators, many times higher than normal people. Currently, patients are suffering from severe liver and kidney failure, needing blood filtration to support the liver and using detox drugs.
Identifying fungi
Previously, on March 6, the Poison Control Center also received a couple from Thanh Hoa who were poisoned by self-picking mushrooms. However, due to severe multiple organ failure, both patients could not survive.
Dr. Nguyen Trung Nguyen - Director of the Poison Control Center, Bach Mai Hospital - warned: It is very difficult to identify whether natural fungi are toxic or not, except for the doongree. People cannot distinguish themselves, even experts can make mistakes. Among thousands of types of mushrooms, the number of toxic mushrooms is not too many but is very easy to be confused. Some mushrooms, although very beautiful, contain toxins such as amatoxin, which can be deadly if eaten.
According to Dr. Nguyen Trung Nguyen, the cause of all cases of mushroom poisoning is that people pick wild-growing mushrooms and pick poison mushrooms to eat.
Each type of toxic mushroom when eaten must have its own signs. Currently, there are two groups of toxic fungi: the group of fungi that cause early poisoning and the group of fungi that cause late poisoning.
Mushrooms that cause early poisoning often have symptoms such as vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhea within 6 hours. If given timely emergency care, most patients will not die.
Meanwhile, mushrooms that cause late-night poisoning look good to the eye, such as white-cheed mushrooms and hat-shaped mushrooms, have symptoms after 6 hours, through three stages from abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea to liver and kidney failure, multiple organ damage and death. The danger of this group is that the symptoms of late absorption of toxins into the body, increasing the risk of death.
To prevent poisoning, the Poison Control Center recommends not picking wild mushrooms, except for herring, and increasing safety propaganda in spring when there are many toxic mushrooms.
