Mother and son almost die after eating 'death cap' mushrooms

A mother and son in Massachusetts, US, had a near-death experience after they ate highly toxic "death cap" mushrooms foraged from a friend's backyard.

Kai Chen, 27, and his mother, Kam Look, 63, were out collecting mushrooms a few weeks ago when they stumbled upon mushrooms that looked similar to the ones they had eaten in Malaysia.

"For me it looked like any other normal capped mushrooms which I thought it was very safe to eat," Look told CBS News.

The pair took the mushrooms home and cooked them for dinner, thinking they would be fine to consume. However, the duo started feeling unwell soon after their meal. They had symptoms similar to extreme food poisoning.

They reportedly managed to drive themselves to Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton. The pair needed special intervention due to their deteriorating condition.

The mother and son were quickly rushed to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester for further tests. A toxicology expert confirmed mushroom poisoning.

Their medical tests revealed that the duo had life-threatening liver damage, which has a 30–50% death rate. The doctors had to fly in an experimental new drug from Philadelphia in an attempt to save the pair.

Chen was released from the hospital a few days later, however, his mother's condition was much worse. She needed liver transplant surgery and was put on the liver transplant list immediately.

She was fortunate enough to have found a liver within days of being put on the list. The surgery was successful, but it took her weeks to recover.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), most mushroom deaths across the world are caused by death cap mushrooms. They have a greenish appearance and have white gills underneath. These mushrooms have enough poison in the cap alone to kill two people.