Family members aged 2 to 79 critically ill from mushrooms

A family of five was rushed to hospital yesterday after eating wild mushrooms.

KwaZulu-Natal Emergency Medical Services paramedics responded to the rural Nyuswa area, where neighbours told them that the family had eaten wild mushrooms they had picked themselves.

"The five family members, three females and two males, who ranged in age from two to 79 years old, were treated by a team of paramedics from KZN EMS, which included two advanced life support paramedics."

"The patients were all presenting with critical signs and symptoms after eating the mushrooms and the paramedics had to work frantically to provide the required emergency medical care, along the dark rural road that the patients had been brought to from their house down a valley by neighbours," EMS spokesman Robert Mckenzie said.

He said all five patients required advanced life support intervention before they were transported to Osindisweni hospital for ongoing medical care.

"The case took several hours to complete due to its rural location, the condition of the patients and the condition of the roads which lead to the area," Mckenzie said.