Eleven members of the same family who allegedly picked wild mushrooms together had to be urgently hospitalized Friday evening after poisoning themselves with the fruit of their harvest.
“Station 57 was alerted to assist multiple emergency medical units during a mass casualty incident. Units were informed that 11 people had ingested toxic mushrooms and were all ill,” Delta-Cardiff Volunteer Fire Station 57 posted on Facebook on Saturday, according to NBC News.
Shortly after 9:30 p.m. Friday, volunteer firefighters from Peach Bottom Township were called to lend a hand, alongside seven other units from York, Lancaster and Harford counties in Pennsylvania, to help eleven members of the same family, including nine children.
The latter, from the Amish community in Pennsylvania, had probably indulged together in picking wild mushrooms, which they then consumed at supper time without knowing that they were toxic.
It was then that two adults, a man and a woman, as well as nine children, fell seriously ill, according to the American media.
But since the Amish community generally does not accept modern technological devices, one of the family members would have had to walk nearly a mile to find a payphone to call emergency services, according to the station. local television WGAL.
It is unclear what condition the eleven members were in when they were transported, but all have since been released from hospital.
On their website, the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reminds that only experts in wild mushrooms – mycologists – should pick them, since it is particularly difficult to detect those which are suitable for consumption by those who are toxic or even fatal.
In the United States, most poisonings and deaths linked to the consumption of wild mushrooms concern the Amanita phalloides, nicknamed “Death cap” or “deadly hat” in French, according to NBC News.
They can cause abdominal discomfort, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration, liver damage or even death, the CDC said on its website.
