Thai workers fall ill after consuming wild mushroom

NAN, THAILAND, May 20 (TNA) - Six workers in Thailand's northern Nan Province were taken to two hospitals after they consumed wild mushroom with alcohol, as their doctors initially assumed that the mushroom was poisonous although it looks similar to those edible kinds. Dr. Paramee Promchaiwong, a female physician at Pua Crown Prince Hospital in Nan, told reporters on Monday that she and nurses had urgently treated four out of the six patients, reported to be workers of a provincial irrigation project, who suffered from stomach ache, diarrhea and severe vomiting. One of the patients, a 50-year old-male worker, later said that he and other seven workers picked the wild mushroom for about one kilogram from the Baan Huay Leuk Forest in Bo Krua district to cook as food, as the mushroom looked like the edible Amanita felon mushroom, which has a shape like geese' eggs in white and yellow colours. According to the patient, he and the other workers had tested the mushroom for poison by boiling them with rice and stainless steel spoon to see whether the rice and spoon would turn black, but they did not; so everyone thought the mushroom was safe to consume and all the eight workers then ate the mushroom, but two of them did not drink alcohol with it and did not fell ill. The worker revealed that he and all the other ill friends were first admitted to Bo Krua Hospital, before he and the other three seriously-ill friends were transferred to Pua Crown Prince Hospital. Dr. Paramee confirmed that all of the four seriously-ill patients are now safe, one of them has, thus, been discharged from the hospital, while the other three have remained at the hospital, as they have been diagnosed with liver infections, but without complications. The doctor noted that the patients are believed to consume Amanita vahinata mushroom, which looks similar to the edible Amanita felon mushroom. (TNA)