Mycologists, people who study fungi- have found that their hobby is fascinating for people who see a bunch of mushrooms growing in their backyard. The “hobby” is more than just that. It can help them save the lives of people who find those mushrooms in their backyard.
In the recent past, there has been a rise in the cases of mushroom poisoning. Dr. Matthew Nelsen, a research scientist at the Negaunee Integrative Research Center at the Field Museum in Chicago said, “Fungi are kind of a hot thing right now.“
From finding them on decorative items to people’s kitchen, experts are concerned of the latter (Source: CNN Health). The misconception of people is driving them towards emergency rooms where they are being treated for mushroom poisoning.
“A lot of the calls we get are kids hand-to-mouth, but we do have adults that maybe think they know what they’re doing foraging. We see they don’t, really,” said Dr. Gregory M. Mueller, the Vice President of science at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
America’s Poison Centers received nearly 7, 000 calls about mushroom poisoning, last year between January to October. This was an 11% rise in such cases from 2022, when only 6,000 calls were received.
Ohio has recorded more than 260 calls till October related to mushroom related poisoning. The majority of the cases were found to end up in the ER, with the rest of them paying a visit to the hospital.
In addition, doctors from hospitals who were looking after the cases said that the people who required extreme solutions were in the hospital were because of consuming foraged mushrooms. Mis-identification of poisonous species as edibles, increases the rate of hospitalization. However, this is not something that spares even experts.
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