The premise of growing, harvesting and consuming isn’t a far-fetched notion. After all, not only can it prove to be a cost-effective solution when it comes to your grocery bills, but it can also be environmentally friendly too. But there is a catch: before attempting to go out and forage for your next meal, it is absolutely crucial that you know what is safe for consumption and what isn’t.
Poisonous mushrooms served as a lunchtime meal
Unfortunately, a Malaysian family of nine had discovered that the hard way after suffering from the ill-effects of consuming wild mushrooms from around the vicinity of their home that turned out to be poisonous. According to Malay daily Sinar Harian, 32-year-old housewife Nurul Musfirah Ghazali, had found the wild mushrooms by chance growing around her home garden and did not realise their potency when harvesting them with the intention of serving them to her family.
Cooking the mushrooms with spinach and beans as part of their family’s lunchtime spread, she only realised the severity of her mistake after a burning sensation started to take root in her stomach within an hour of having their meal. Things turned for the worse when both Nurul and her husband started vomiting blood.
“In a state of semi-consciousness, I could only watch as my children started collapsing, some who were frothing at the mouth while others vomited blood. Only Allah SWT knows how I felt at the time,” she said.
Out of all her family, only her youngest one-year-old child had been spared from the ill-effects of consuming the poisoned dish. According to Nurul, she had seen the mushrooms sprout in her vegetable garden previously, but had not thought of plucking them out to cook until this incident took place. As a consequence, nine members of her family wound up warded, some even in ICU.
Consuming them could have deadly consequences
In a warning issued to netizens after Nurul’s story had went viral across social media, popular Malaysian medical Facebook page Public Health Malaysia created an infographic in hopes of helping prospective gardeners to identify potentially poisonous mushroom species. According to the post, most commonly poisonous mushroom varieties have white ‘gills’ under their cap, and have a distinct ring formation around their stalks.
Consuming the poisonous mushrooms could lead to mental confusion, hallucinations, lethargy, diarrhea, vommitting, and in severe cases, kidney injury or even death.
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