San Diego
A San Diego couple and their 9-year-old son were treated for severe nausea at Mercy Hospital on Wednesday after they ate mushrooms that they had picked on a lawn, hospital officials said.
The three patients--William Ferguson, his wife, Lola, and their son, William--became sick several hours after cooking and eating the mushrooms Tuesday night, according to hospital spokesman Norman Greene. After receiving intravenous fluids and other medication at the hospital, all three were discharged late Wednesday afternoon, Greene said.
Dr. Anthony Manoguerra, director of the San Diego Regional Poison Center, identified the mushrooms that the three had eaten as chlorophyllum molybdites, a common mushroom that grows on lawns throughout the county. He said that the mushrooms, which are predominantly white with brown scales on the top, are not life-threatening if consumed, but can produce severe nausea, vomiting and diarrhea for up to 36 hours.
In March, four Mexican nationals died after eating a highly poisonous variety of wild mushrooms that they apparently had picked in a field in Escondido.
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