News
03rd Sep 2021
A five-year-old Afghan refugee who was recently evacuated from the country has sadly died after consuming deadly mushrooms picked from near where they were staying.
Doctors at Poland’s main children’s hospital have said the boy, recently evacuated from Kabul, passed away after he and the rest of his family fell ill from the toxic fungi found in a forest in Podkowa Leśna, near Warsaw.
His six-year-old brother remains in a life-threatening condition after a successful emergency liver transplant but that the damage to his brain was significant. The hospital’s director, Dr Marek Migdal, said yesterday: “Unfortunately, we were unable to help both boys.”
‘Death cap’ mushrooms are some of the most poisonous in the world and, unfortunately, closely resemble Poland’s edible and highly popular variety of parasol mushrooms.
Meanwhile, the 17-year-old sister has been released in a good condition but other family members are still recovering elsewhere. Doctors said the parents were at the hospital under psychological examination after being evacuated the last month at the request of the UK government, as the father had worked for the British government.
This is not the only incident of poisonous mushrooms being digested by Afghan refugees, as four Afghan men were rushed to hospital from a different centre, according to the state office for foreigners, with hunger and desperation among those evacuated following the Taliban takeover clearly still playing a part.
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