Health Improves for 2 Who Ate Poisonous Mushrooms

Two of three people who ate poisonous mushrooms last weekend in San Francisco were upgraded to good condition Thursday, but a third remained critical with a severely damaged liver, hospital officials said.

A 53-year-old man was not showing any improvement, and doctors did not know if he would need a liver transplant, University of California at San Francisco spokeswoman Alice Trinkl said. He remained on a liver transplant waiting list, just in case.

But his 37-year-old nephew and a 39-year-old woman could be sent home within the next day or two, Trinkl said.

“It’s good news,” she said. “I’m very pleased.”

The patients’ names have not been released.

The mushrooms, picked in Lafayette, resembled some the patients were used to eating in their native Mexico. But they turned out to be toxic Amanita phalloides, known as “death caps.”

Seven other people have been hospitalized in California this year for eating poisonous mushrooms, said Ilene Anderson, a pharmacist at the California Poison Control System’s San Francisco division.

Two people in California died this year from ingesting poisonous mushrooms. One was Sam Sebastiani Jr., a fourth-generation member of the pioneering California wine family.

In 1996, seven people in California required hospitalization for severe cases of Amanita phalloides poisoning.