Melbourne woman’s death after foraged mushroom dinner prompts coroner’s warning

Poisonous death cap (left) and yellow-staining mushrooms. In Victoria, wild mushrooms typically grow in autumn as weather grows wetter and cooler.

A Melbourne woman has died after she and her son were poisoned by a homemade meal containing foraged mushrooms, prompting a warning from the coroner.

The 98-year-old woman, Loreta Maria Del Rossi, died in hospital on 22 May, seven days after eating the meal.

In the Victorian state coroner’s report released on Wednesday, Judge John Cain said Del Rossi died from multi-organ failure after poisoning from the toxins found in lethal “death cap” mushrooms (Amanita phalloides).

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The death prompted Cain to call for an annual public health campaign about the dangers of consuming wild mushrooms – including how to identify and remove deadly fungi, and instructions for suspected poisoning.

Victoria’s health department warns people in the state not to pick and eat them “unless you are an expert”.

Related:The forager’s code: wild mushroom hunters urged to take a conscious, conservative approach

Del Rossi lived with her adult son, Nicola Del Rossi, in the eastern suburb of Bayswater, where, according to the report, she cooked with homegrown vegetables and was known to regularly collect wild edible grasses such as dandelion, milk thistle and cat’s ear.

Foraging is common in European countries including Italy, from where Del Rossi migrated with her son and daughter in 1955.

The report detailed that Del Rossi found wild mushrooms in the garden in April, and told her son that she would collect, clean and test them. They consumed the mushrooms in a meal of rice and tuna with no negative effects.

On 15 May, Del Rossi found more mushrooms growing in the same patch and prepared them in the same way for her son to cook for dinner.

After they both ate the meal and went to bed, Del Rossi began vomiting at 2am and her son became unwell at 6am. He called an ambulance and they were transported to hospital.

Del Rossi’s son survived, but her condition deteriorated despite aggressive treatments. She told staff she was in significant pain, and in line with her wishes, entered palliative care on 20 May.

The health department’s Better Health website, referenced in the coroner’s finding, warns poisonous mushrooms typically grow in Victoria in autumn.

It states the yellow-staining mushroom is the most commonly eaten poisonous mushroom in Victoria, and is, the coroner’s report noted, “often confused for edible mushrooms that can be purchased in supermarkets”.

“The death cap mushroom is usually whitish, yellow, pale brown or green in colour and often grows under oak trees,” the report said.

The estimated lethal dose of amatoxins in humans is 0.1 mg/kg. As such, the coroner’s report warned, a 50g mushroom could contain a potentially fatal quantity of anatoxins for a 70kg adult.