Johannesburg -
A meal of poisonous mushrooms, eaten for supper two weeks ago, has killed four of five members of an Olievenhoutbosch family.
The four died at different times while receiving intensive treatment at a local hospital.
The family ate the meal of mushrooms together on the night of December 5, the vegetable having been a regular feature on the household’s dinner menu.
The mother, Johanna Mthethwa, picked them from a patch which neighbours said was along the way she walked from work everyday.
“Having no money to buy other vegetables or anything else, the mother took advantage of the free mushrooms to cook for her family. But for some reason on that day she served them the wrong stuff,” a neighbour, who only identified herself as Melisa, said on Tuesday.
“It could also have been all they had on their plate that night and many other evenings, Melisa added. It could have been in a larger amount than a normal vegetable serving. That could have been the problem.”
Their son Emmanuel refused to eat supper that night, saying he was tired of eating mushrooms, but Samson Phiri, his wife, their son Frank and daughter Angela ate as they did every day.
“But they fell ill immediately and were rushed to hospital the next morning,” Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi said after a visit to the family home on Tuesday. He met Emmanuel and other family members who had rushed there when they heard the news.
Lesufi described the situation as very sad. He had been told that Johanna Mthethwa had a medical condition requiring a diet consisting mainly of vegetables.
“Apparently there was a mushroom garden she had easy access to, and from which she picked some almost every day,” Lesufi said.
But this particular type was extremely poisonous, its effects being felt within minutes of ingestion and proving fatal in some cases, Lesufi said, quoting the medical report from the hospital.
Frank, the oldest of the Mthethwa children, was in Grade 11 at Steve Tshwete Secondary School.
Principal Mandla Mtimunye was part of the delegation that accompanied the MEC to the home on Tuesday. He said the community, and family, were particularly poor.
“Reliance on what she would not have had to buy for sustenance could be to blame for the sad demise of so many family members.”
Phiri had come from Malawi and Johanna from the Eastern Cape. Yesterday, Lesufi said the government would step in to assist with burial arrangements.
“Social workers are in the area to deal with the psycho-social and emotional needs of Emmanuel and other relatives,” he said. The school principal said they would also help Emmanuel deal with the loss when the schools open next year. He will be in Grade 11.
Lesufi said Angela had been in Grade 1 when she died, and from what he had seen inside the very small shack occupied by the family, her academic career and that of her brothers, would have been bright.
He had seen shelves full of books, academic books and books indicative of people interested in the medical profession.
“Their education would have been their ticket out of poverty,” he added.
According to scientists, the difference between edible and poisonous mushrooms is not immediately obvious to the naked eye, and the varieties very often tasted exactly the same. Vomiting and diarrhoea were the most common bad reactions from ingesting poisonous mushrooms. Immediate treatment should be administered.
Plant pathologists say only 32 species of mushroom were associated with death worldwide.
There were myths that poisonous mushrooms smelt or tasted badly, while some believed that mushrooms which insects and other small animals avoided were bad. These folk tales are not true.
Another misconception was that the poisonous mushrooms blackened silver spoons or the old 50c silver coins, or that cooking them destroyed the poison in them.
- Pretoria News
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