Her fish, veges and mushroom tasted delicious, but it could have been the last supper for a Hamilton woman, who wants to warn people about deadly New Zealand mushrooms, following deaths of three Australians who ate killer fungi for lunch.

Following a family lunch on July 29, where wild mushrooms were on the menu, Australian pastor Ian Wilkinson and his wife, Heather, along with her sister and brother-in-law Gail and Don Patterson, were taken to hospital with gastro symptoms.

Ian remains critical. His wife and the other couple died.

The news shook former Hamilton doctor Anna Whitehead, who had a similar experience in 2020, when she fell seriously ill after eating a deadly death cap mushroom she’d picked under a Raglan oak tree.

“That could have been me. I nearly died too. It was touch and go for weeks. They thought I would need a liver transplant.”

Anna is keen to remind people to be cautious about wild mushrooms.

“You don’t think of there being things like that in this country that kill you. Like me, many people might be totally unaware. They grow everywhere, so it’s a real hazard.”

Anna had picked the mushroom and cooked it for dinner with her fish and vegetables,

“I remember thinking, mmm, this is delicious, so this is what mushrooms should really taste like.”

She woke that night projectile vomiting a foul smelling green fluid, accompanied by green diarrhoea.

“First, I didn’t even think of the mushroom. I fell back asleep, but then I woke again violently vomiting, then again. There was so much liquid coming out of me I knew something was very wrong.”

Lack of knowledge about poisonous mushrooms extended to medical staff, says Anna.

“The paramedics thought I’d eaten a magic mushroom, and I kept telling them it wasn’t. Doctors at the hospital were initially sceptical about how just one mushroom could make me so ill.”

After a day on fluids she was sent home, but immediately vomited again.

“It filled the basin, I couldn’t keep any fluid in. I found out later that there’s what they call a ‘honeymoon period’, which happens in mushroom poisoning. The vomiting seems to stop, but the poison is still seeping through your body into your organs.”

She was rushed back to hospital facing major renal and liver failure. She spent three weeks in Waikato Hospital’s intensive care, high dependency unit.

“They were talking about a liver transplant as the poison was making my blood’s enzymes go up, and they couldn’t do anything about it. The awful stench of the mushroom was coming out my pores.”

Eventually the medical team enlisted the help of a doctor from Europe with expertise in poisoning.

“Luckily, because I had started getting fluids early, it eventually subsided. It took me a while to recover, but I’m okay now. If I hadn’t got medical treatment early it would have been a different story with death or lifelong health issues.”

Anna contacted the council afterwards to point out where the mushrooms were,

“They are still there. It worries me as people could easily just pick them. People who hear my story always say they didn’t know either.”

More education, warning and systems should be in place, so people are aware of the danger, she says.

“I never knew there were mushrooms here that could actually kill you. Maybe there could be signs were they grow. In Europe, you can take foraged mushrooms to pharmacies, and they will tell you whether they are poisonous or not.”

Death caps like Whitehead ate cause about 90 per cent of mushroom related deaths worldwide. If people manage to survive, there are often long-term complications.

Mushroom foraging expert Peter Langlands says death caps, which grow with tree roots, initially taste and smell great.

After an initial bout of queasiness people often experience a honeymoon period where they feel better, Langlands said, “but actually your organs are going through catastrophic failure”.

Anna now picks her mushrooms from the supermarket aisle rather than trees.

“People always ask me do I still eat mushrooms. It took me a while. I’ll never forget that foul smell when I was sick – I smelled like death.”

Wild death cap mushrooms can be deadly. Photo: National Poisons Centre.

DEATH CAP MUSHROOM

* When young, resembles white ball at soil surface

* Adult has cap up to 12cm across, stem 15cm long

* Adult colour can be off-white, light tan or green

* Contains poisonous basidiomycete fungus

* Symptoms appear 6-24 hours after eating

* Causes liver and kidney failure, diarrhoea and vomiting

If you become ill after eating mushrooms, call the poisons centre on 0800 POISON / 0800 764 766 and get immediate medical attention calling 111.

-Annemarie Quill/Stuff.