VICTORIA — A Victoria resident who ate a wild mushroom he picked in the city's downtown has become seriously ill, prompting the Island Health authority to issue a warning for others to be extra cautious.
The authority's chief medical health officer Dr. Richard Stanwick says the person has been transferred from an intensive care unit in Victoria to a hospital in Alberta.
He says the male's family has not released his name or age but wants others to know they too could be poisoned from eating so-called death caps.
Stanwick says the male and a companion were picking mushrooms on Oct. 3 when he ate one of them.
He says the male would have begun vomiting within eight to 12 hours and ended up in hospital four days later suffering from liver damage.
Stanwick says he went to the site where the mushrooms were picked and dug out whatever he could find so no one else could eat them, adding one death cap is enough to kill a person.
