KallMeKris

But as he went on, he kept going downhill and his lactate levels climbed dangerously high and his liver began failing and signs of sepsis started to set in.

And doctors realized that gastroenteritis alone couldn't explain what they were seeing.

So toxicologists were consulted and the symptoms pointed toward a specific culprit.

Amanita phalloids, death cap mushrooms.

Now death caps are behind more than 90% of fatal mushroom poisonings worldwide.

And they contain amatoxins, which are heat stable.

Or in other words, cooking does nothing to neutralize them.

So the poison makes its way to the liver after ingestion and it locks onto the cells there and kills their ability to produce proteins.

So the cells literally die and the organ follows.

And the poisoning follows a very cruel pattern.

First, violent stomach symptoms hit within six to 24 hours of eating.

Then the patient seems to rally for roughly a day.

And then three to five days after ingestion, the liver collapses along with other major organs afterwards.

In other words, sepsis.

And it takes remarkably little to have a devastating effect.

Just 0.1 milligrams per kilogram of body weight can be fatal.

And one mushroom can take down a grown person.

And in light of this discovery,

the decision was made to move all four patients to major hospitals in Melbourne because the rural facilities could not manage what was coming.

Now, Erin had told Simon she'd also been sick since Saturday night, and she arrived at Leongatha Hospital on Monday morning at 8.05 and then was transferred to Menash Clayton later that day, but she would be discharged the next day.