A STUDENT died of acute poisoning after consuming a variety of different mushrooms, an inquest has heard.
Brian Collins (24), Nephin Hall, Hopkins Road, Castlebar, Co Mayo, was rushed to Mayo General Hospital in the early hours of October 13th, 2007.
His care assistant contacted the emergency services when the young man, who was quadriplegic after an accident two years earlier, called her to say he was feeling unwell and began to drift in and out of consciousness.
When he arrived at the Mayo hospital, he was deeply unconscious with a rapid heart rate.
The impression on admission was that Mr Collins was suffering from acute mushroom poisoning following the ingestion of 30 mushrooms two to three hours earlier and he was transferred to the intensive care unit.
By October 14th, his condition had worsened and he was transferred to the liver unit at St Vincent’s hospital, respiratory physician Dr Cyril Rooney at Mayo general told the coroner Dr Brian Farrell in a letter read out at Dublin City Coroner’s Court yesterday.
He died of complications of liver failure at St Vincent’s hospital on October 18th.
A number of mushrooms (found with Mr Collins) were sent for analysis. They were found to be Liberty Cap mushrooms or psilocybin mushrooms, known for their psychedelic and hallucinogenic properties and are commonly known as “magic mushrooms.”
A postmortem found, however, that the student at Galway/Mayo Institute of Technology died of liver failure due an acute toxic reaction to amatoxin, found in another type of mushroom.
Dr Farrell recorded the cause of death as liver failure due to acute amatoxin toxicity and a verdict of death by misadventure.
The coroner expressed his condolences to Mr Collins’s parents and to his two older brothers.