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Four people hospitalised after eating toxic mushrooms
HELSINGIN SANOMAT ^ | August 26, 2009

Posted on 08/26/2009 10:52:39 AM PDT by Shermy

[from Finland] Four people have had to seek medical treatment after having eaten white Amanitas (Amanita virosa), highly toxic mushrooms also known as "destroying angels". Two of the patients have been brought to the intensive care unit of the Surgical Hospital in Helsinki, and it is likely that yet another patient with mushroom poisoning will end up in the same hospital. Only one of the four victims can be treated in a central hospital of his or her own hospital area. The four persons with mushroom poisoning come from various parts of Southern Finland.

The poisoning victims who have been brought to Helsinki are in serious condition, and their lives are in danger. Chief physician Anna-Maria Koivusalo of the intensive care unit of Helsinki’s Surgical Hospital reports that four patients with mushroom poisoning during one weekend is an exceptionally large number. The Surgical Hospital has annually treated one to five patients suffering from severe mushroom poisoning. Milder cases are treated locally in a central hospital. Previously the number of mushroom poisonings was higher than average in 2005.

The patients brought to the Surgical Hospital are being treated with the so-called molecular adsorbents recirculating system (MARS), a form of artificial liver support that has the potential to remove toxins from the organs. If the MARS therapy is not sufficient, the patients should have liver transplant surgery as soon as possible. Following Amanita poisoning, the patient gets severe symptoms within less than 12 hours. Such symptoms include vomiting and dehydration. The patient also feels very sick. Mushroom poisoning leads to liver necrosis within approximately ten days.

The white Amanita is often mistaken for blushing wood mushrooms (Agaricus silvaticus). However, while white Amanitas are very common, blushing wood mushrooms are a very rare species, which can hardly ever be found in the Finnish woods. Other species that bear a passing resemblance to this killer are the field (or meadow) mushroom (Agaricus campestris) and horse mushroom (Agaricus arvensis). In general, physicians and mushroom experts advise all uncertain mushroom-pickers to leave all white mushrooms in the forest.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: amanita; finland; mushrooms
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Destroying Angel

Amanita

1 posted on 08/26/2009 10:52:39 AM PDT by Shermy
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To: Slings and Arrows

.


2 posted on 08/26/2009 10:54:24 AM PDT by KoRn (Department of Homeland Security, Certified - "Right Wing Extremist")
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To: Polonius; Lurker; martin_fierro; Zon; Tennessee_Bob; Don Joe

Ping.


3 posted on 08/26/2009 10:54:56 AM PDT by Shermy ("disregard for the facts as understood by the mainstream media"..That's me!!)
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To: Shermy
All wild mushrooms are dangerous. Even non-toxic ones like morels are potentially deadly if you are caught poaching someone else's secret mushroom patch. But at least your body will feed next years batch.
4 posted on 08/26/2009 11:06:38 AM PDT by KarlInOhio ("I can run wild for six months ...after that, I have no expectation of success" - Admiral Obama-moto)
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To: Shermy

If I am not mistaken, the equally poisonous Amanita Muscaria can be found here in North America.


5 posted on 08/26/2009 11:10:34 AM PDT by WayneS (Respect the 2nd Amendment; Repeal the 16th)
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To: Shermy
Poisoned by Amanita Virosa with its distinctive pattern. See the colors:

Then there's that all time favorite, the mildly (?) psychedelic Amanita Muscaria , beloved by the ancients as Soma

See the Colors:

6 posted on 08/26/2009 11:51:28 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: WayneS

Amantia Mucaria is a psychoactive mushroom found in the entire Northern Hemisphere. it has had a long history in the pre-Christian religious practices of Europe as a hallucinogenic. I wondered if that is what they thought that they were eating.


7 posted on 08/26/2009 11:53:03 AM PDT by dog breath
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To: Constitution Day

"Because it's just too hard to go to the supermarket" Ping.

8 posted on 08/26/2009 11:54:01 AM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: WayneS
To get suitibly nauseus from Amanita Muscaria you'd have to eat what amounts to half a bed load for a Ford 350. This particular mushroom, which looks remarkably similar to the uninitiated, only takes a bite.

North American Amanita Muscaria is not considered a big time psychedelic product ~ something is missing in the soil, PLUS there are 238 FAR MORE POWERFUL psychedelic mushrooms and plants readily available in the Americas.

Early "still semi-pagan" Sa'ami settlers abandoned the use of Amanita and adopted Peyote in fact.

9 posted on 08/26/2009 11:55:38 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: KarlInOhio

You are so right. Good mushrooms are hard to find ~


10 posted on 08/26/2009 11:56:45 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: muawiyah

Funny, I used to roam the cow pastures back in the 70’s and the ‘schrooms we picked looked nothing like any of those pictures. And believe you me, they were the “trippin” kind.


11 posted on 08/26/2009 12:05:20 PM PDT by MGBGUN (Freedom is not free.)
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To: WayneS
If I am not mistaken, the equally poisonous Amanita Muscaria can be found here in North America.

Muscaria is nothing to be trifled with, but its not nearly as poisonous as the Amanita in this article. It was a shamanic mushroom in, I believe, Siberia.

12 posted on 08/26/2009 12:24:00 PM PDT by Pearls Before Swine (Is /sarc really necessary?)
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To: martin_fierro

My wife and I went to an Asian market last weekend. The mushroom assortment was huge.

Some years ago my sons and I bought several mushroom identification books and thought we were ‘ready’.
But alas, I didn’t have the stones to try one of my id’ed specimens.
I’ll leave it to the experts.


13 posted on 08/26/2009 12:35:08 PM PDT by Vinnie (You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Jihads You)
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To: Shermy

That is the first or second deadliest mushroom in the world. They will be treated with milk thistle seed or they will likely die.


14 posted on 08/26/2009 1:07:58 PM PDT by TigersEye (0bama: "I can see Mecca from the WH portico." --- Google - Cloward-Piven Strategy)
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To: TigersEye

NAC + Milk Thistle, stat, eating mushrooms is dangerous busienss.


15 posted on 08/26/2009 1:09:49 PM PDT by Scythian
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To: MGBGUN
No doubt they were North American mushrooms and not Eur-Asian. There's a mushroom in China called "Straw Mushroom" which is the all time favorite. It looks exactly like a quite poisonous variety that grows in the United States.

North America has different soil conditions than Asia, different climate, and different species histories.

16 posted on 08/26/2009 1:13:33 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: Scythian

I don’t know what NAC is. Is that different from the MARS treatment described in the article? I don’t know about a liver transplant being sufficient if the MARS treatment fails. IIRC Amanita virosa also causes kidney failure. Milk thistle. The French have substantiated its success. It not only stops the tissue destruction it stimulates liver regeneration. Nothing else does that I know of.


17 posted on 08/26/2009 1:15:04 PM PDT by TigersEye (0bama: "I can see Mecca from the WH portico." --- Google - Cloward-Piven Strategy)
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To: TigersEye

NAC (N-Acetyl-Cysteine) - An aboslute miracle of an amino acid, given to those who OD on acetaminophen to protect the liver. But, it’s main role is for building Glutathione (powerhouse of your immune system) and detoxing free radicals, including heavy metals like Lead and Mercury. I take it every day ... Oh, and it’s almost impossible to get the flu while on it (google it)


18 posted on 08/26/2009 1:21:37 PM PDT by Scythian
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To: KarlInOhio

Which brings up an interesting historical question. By and large the easier a mushroom is to grow/ find the more likely it is to be toxic, so who are the people that found the good mushrooms and why were they willing to take the chance.


19 posted on 08/26/2009 1:24:47 PM PDT by discostu (When I'm walking a dark road I am a man who walks alone)
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To: Scythian
That's good to know about. I will look it up. I haven't had a cold in over 35 years or the flu in over 25 years so I don't worry much about that. I also have Osha (ligusticum porteri) root which will kill the flu immediately if taken at the first sign of it. If that doesn't do it Gan Mao Ling (a Chinese Patent Formula) will.

Milk thistle seed is a must-know herb for most toxic poisoning affecting the liver. It should be combined with psyllium seed (Metamucil) to carry the toxins out of the body or the blood stream will just take them up again from the intestines.

20 posted on 08/26/2009 1:36:55 PM PDT by TigersEye (0bama: "I can see Mecca from the WH portico." --- Google - Cloward-Piven Strategy)
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