Over the past year, there has been a slew of food poisoning incidents in residents of Emerson Valley. According to Dr. Fiona Bridges, the Director of Emergency Medicine at St. Benedict’s Hospital, the number of food poisoning cases treated in the ER has quadrupled since 2018. Recently, there was an unfortunate fatality when a man checked in after spending the day hiking with his family in Blackwood Forest. His symptoms worsened, and the hospital staff was unable to determine exactly what was making him sick. Sadly, he passed away 33 hours later.

Following the man’s death, an autopsy was performed and discovered undigested pieces of an unidentified mushroom in his stomach. It is currently unknown if this was what caused the food poisoning in him, but the doctors and pathologists are fairly certain it is a likely candidate. They have issued a statement to the citizens of Emerson Valley to dissuade anyone else from attempting to eat wild mushrooms found in the forest.

“Mushrooms are often seen as a delicacy when it comes to cooking, but if you’re not well-versed in identifying edible mushrooms from the poisonous ones, please refrain from consuming them. Even touching them could be potentially hazardous, so if you see a wild mushroom, it’s best to simply leave it alone.”

So far, over thirty people have been treated for food poisoning at St. Benedict’s, although this was the first fatality to occur. It is not clear if any of the other cases involved somebody eating mushrooms, but the hospital administration is going to investigate the matter to see if they can find any evidence to support that theory.

If residents have been consuming mushrooms growing in Blackwood Forest, the next question that needs to be answered is why. There does not appear to be an obvious reason that people would suddenly begin picking and consuming wild mushrooms when this has never been a problem before. The Gazette will update this story if anything new comes to light.

-Sarah Donovan, Editor & Local News, Emerson Valley Gazette

UPDATE (12/5/2019): After this story was posted yesterday, the wife of the man who died of food poisoning contacted the Gazette to clarify the situation and give some additional information. She said that her husband, three children, and herself all ate the same mushrooms, but only her husband ended up with food poisoning.

This complicates the issue, since if the mushrooms were poisonous, it is unlikely to only have negative effects on one out of five people. The only thing he had eaten that differed from the rest of the family was at breakfast before they went on their hike. Everyone else had eggs and bacon, but as her husband had been told by a doctor to cut back on greasy, fatty foods, he instead ate a bowl of cereal.

UPDATE (12/9/2019): Administrators at St. Benedict’s Hospital have concluded that this was an isolated incident. Their Board of Directors Chairman, George O’Malley, has stated, “While we are saddened by the death of our patient, we would like to assure the people of Emerson Valley that there is no danger when it comes to the mushrooms growing in Blackwood Forest. A team of mycologists went out into the forest and performed a number of tests on them, and they determined that the mushrooms there are perfectly safe for consumption. The rise in food poisoning cases is a result of substandard refrigeration conditions at the local grocery stores, especially with dairy products like milk and yogurt.”