Woman died after eating wild mushrooms (From Daily Echo)

Woman died after eating wild mushrooms

1:50pm Thursday 18th March 2010 in

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A MOTHER of two died from poisoning after eating fatal death cap mushrooms on the Isle of Wight which she may have mistaken for normal edible field mushrooms, an inquest heard today.

Thai national Amphon Tuckey was pronounced dead at her home address in Carisbrooke High Street, Newport, on the Isle of Wight, on September 17 2008.

The hearing at Newport Coroner's Court was told the 39-year-old, known as Juny, had eaten the mushrooms at the home of her niece, Kannika Tuckey, known as Pern, also in Newport.

The inquest heard Pern had picked the mushrooms with her husband Paul which had grown in the wild at the Ventnor Botanic Gardens and had invited her aunt, who was married to Paul's brother Michael, to eat the mushrooms.

Pern also became seriously ill after eating a small amount of the mushrooms but recovered after being treated at a specialist unit at King's College Hospital in London.

She told the inquest she had been anxious about trying the mushrooms but had been reassured when her aunt had eaten them.

The inquest heard both women fell ill in the early hours of the next morning with Juny suffering severe vomiting and diarrhoea.

Her husband, Michael, called for an ambulance but when the paramedics asked Juny what she had been eating, she did not mention the mushrooms and only said she had eaten a raw pork sausage which is a Thai speciality.

Michael told the inquest he had taught his wife which mushrooms to pick but had warned her against eating wild mushrooms.

Explaining why she had not told him about the mushrooms she had eaten, he said: ''I think she knew I would be angry because she knew how I felt about mushrooms.''

The inquest heard paramedics believed Juny was suffering from food poisoning and advised her husband to contact her GP in the morning if she was not better.

In a statement read to the inquest, GP Dr David Isaac said he did visit Juny in the morning but had diagnosed gastroenteritis and had prescribed appropriate medication.

He said she had told him about the raw pork sausage and had only said she had eaten mushrooms that she had eaten before.

Juny's condition deteriorated and she died the next night.

The inquest heard that half a cap of a death cap mushroom was enough to kill a human.

A post mortem revealed she died of poisoning caused by eating the death cap mushrooms.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, Isle of Wight Coroner John Matthews said it was ''unfortunate'' Juny had not told paramedics that she had eaten the mushrooms but said no medical intervention could have saved her life.

He said: ''They all thought at the time she had a case of gastroenteritis and that the patient should recover.

''But even if they had been made aware right from the beginning that she had eaten fatal mushrooms, the amount she had ingested meant she would have inevitably died.''