Woman dies after eating poisonous mushrooms in Melbourne

An elderly woman has died after accidentally eating poisonous mushrooms she picked from her garden for tuna and rice dinner.

Loreta Maria Del Rossi, 98, from Bayswater, Melbourne’s east, died on May 22 this year after organ failure.

She was found to have been poisoned by amatoxins, which are found in death caps and yellow-spotted mushrooms, Victorian coroner Judge John Cain said in his findings handed down this week.

Ms Del Rossi grew her own vegetables and was known to collect wild grasses for herself and her adult son Nicola, with whom she lived, the coroner said in his findings.

In April this year, Mrs Del Rossi noticed some mushrooms in her front garden and asked her son if he thought they were safe to eat.

She washed and cleaned the mushrooms and put them in a meal with tuna and rice.

Neither Mrs. Del Rossi nor her son became ill and a few weeks later, on May 15, she decided to pick mushrooms from the garden again to prepare the same meal for dinner.

Ms Del Rossi woke up in the middle of the night and started vomiting. She told her son that the mushrooms were not tasty.

At around 6am the next morning, Nicola also started vomiting and the pair called an ambulance.

Both Nicola and his mother were taken to hospital, but Ms Del Rossi’s condition worsened and she told medical staff she was in a lot of pain.

Based on her wishes, Ms. Del Rossi’s treatment was stopped and she was transferred to palliative care. She died on May 22.

Mr Cain said in his findings that yellow-spotted mushrooms are often confused with edible mushrooms bought in supermarkets.

Death cap mushrooms are usually white, yellow and brown or green in color.

The coroner issued an urgent warning about eating wild mushrooms, saying more public awareness was needed.

‘I therefore recommend that the Department of Health, in collaboration with the Victorian Poisons Information Centre, design an annual advertising campaign to be released each year in early autumn when wild mushrooms are common in Victoria, highlighting the dangers of consuming wild mushrooms are emphasized,” he said.

Ms Del Rossi’s death comes as a date has been set for the trial of alleged mushroom killer Erin Patterson.

Erin Patterson’s murder trial begins April 28 in Victoria

Ms. Patterson’s murder trial is scheduled to begin on April 28.

The 49-year-old is facing three murder charges over the deaths of her father-in-law Don Patterson, mother-in-law Gail Patterson and extended family member Heather Wilkinson, after inviting the trio to lunch at her home in Leongatha, Victoria. in July last year.

She is accused of the attempted murder of her estranged husband Simon Patterson – who was invited to the lunch but did not attend – and two other alleged attempts on his life in 2022, and another in 2021.

Patterson is also charged with the attempted murder of Pastor Ian Wilkinson, who was at the lunch but survived after a long battle for life in hospital.