Death Provokes Strong Warnings Against Consuming Wild Mushrooms

The death of a farm worker who ate wild mushrooms, the second such poisoning case in a week, led to urgent warnings Friday by officials who implored the public to stop gathering the fungi.

“Unless you are an expert yourself, or have an expert assisting you, don’t eat wild mushrooms,” said Wade Whitfield, president of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Mushroom Council in Sacramento.

Arturo Leyba-Sanchez, 43, died Tuesday at a Petaluma hospital, a day after he was admitted with vomiting and abdominal pains. The Sonoma County coroner’s office suspects that the farm worker ate “death cap” mushrooms. The same mushroom--Amanita phalloides--is blamed for poisoning four members of a family in Orinda this week.

However, Dr. William Freedman, chairman of the San Francisco Mycological Society, said initial reports indicate that the family and Leyba-Sanchez ate several different varieties of mushrooms.

One member of the Orinda family, a 13-year-old girl, underwent a partial liver transplant and was in serious condition at UC Medical Center in San Francisco. Her two brothers, 11 and 14, left the center Thursday, while her mother remained there in fair condition.