Abdominal pain and nausea Participants in Zurich mushroom workshop end up in hospital

Nothing should have gone wrong at the mushroom workshop in Zurich. But although a mushroom inspector accompanied the whole thing, two people ended up in hospital afterwards.

Zurich's Theaterhaus Gessnerallee held the "Fungi Care" workshop on October 22: Participants will "immerse themselves in the world of mushrooms from sunrise to sunset", promises the advertising on the theater's website. "This day aims to sharpen your own perception and offers a new perspective on our ecosystem and your own role in it," it continues.

But things turned out differently: as the Tages-Anzeiger reported, two participants ended up in hospital that evening. Three other people complained of abdominal pain and nausea. However, the patients all got off lightly: the two people who had to go to hospital were discharged the next morning.

What happened? The group went mushroom picking in the forest during the day. They were accompanied by an official mushroom inspector, who of course knows which of these creatures are poisonous and which are not. After the excursion, small groups were formed to prepare the collected mushrooms under the guidance of an artist.

Hallimasche not cooked long enough

The problem is the common hallimash. The mushroom inspector assured the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper that he had informed the participants of the danger associated with it, as it is poisonous if not cooked long enough. The mushroom lovers had obviously not taken this to heart.

At midnight, the hospital contacts the inspector. "At least I was able to immediately give the all-clear to the attending doctor and the toxicology center that no green button mushrooms had been collected," he explains. Although the incident was unpleasant for the mushroom inspector, it was very much in his interest to let people know through the media that the common hallimash should be eaten with caution.