Eleven people were hospitalized last week after consuming wild and potentially deadly mushrooms, according to a fire department in Pennsylvania Dutch Country.
According to NBC affiliate WGAL of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the patients in Peach Bottom Township included a man, a woman, and nine children who were treated and released from a hospital.
The township is located in Dutch Country, which overlaps with Amish Country and shares culture and history, approximately 80 miles west of Philadelphia on Pennsylvania’s border with Maryland.
The station stated that family members foraged and ate wild mushrooms on Friday night.
According to WGAL, a family member had to walk half a mile to reach a public phone and telephone 911. Cellphones and other modern electronics and technology are often not permitted among the Amish.
Emergency medical staff arrived after 9:30 p.m. on Friday and assisted in transporting all 11 victims, according to a statement from Delta-Cardiff Volunteer Fire Company Station 57.
Because so many individuals were unwell, the event was classified as a “mass casualty incident,” according to the agency.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, those who are not trained as mycologists should nearly never eat mushrooms foraged outdoors.
The majority of documented mushroom poisonings and deaths in the United States involve foraging for Amanita phalloides mushrooms, sometimes known as “death caps,” in the wild, according to a CDC report on the dangerous fungus.
According to the report, eating them can result in mortality, abdominal discomfort, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration, and liver damage.