Mushroom downs 12 in Liloan

CEBU - Not all varieties of mushroom are edible and 12 people in the town of Liloan found out the hard way during dinner time last Wednesday.

The twelve, including a nine-year-old boy, were rushed to the hospital after feeling dizzy, developing stomach pains, and vomiting when they ate mushroom.

The incident happened at sitio Ilacot of barangay Cotcot.

Two of the victims remain confined at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center while the rest have been sent home. The victims were first brought to the Eversley Child Sanitarium in Mandaue City before they were transferred to the VSMMC.

The town police however learned of the incident only yesterday morning according to P03 Jaime Maroliña. The municipal health officer, Dr. Francisco dela Cuesta, was also informed about it at the same time.

Dela Cuesta said she immediately sent midwife Diosdada Noval to the said barangay to verify the incident and ask for information and samples for possible laboratory examination to determine if they really ate a poisonous variety of mushroom or if the problem was with the food preparation and cleanliness.

Noval identified the victims as Rosita Gomez, Nelia Tecson, Mario Capul, Mary-ann Irog-irog, Ulysses Tundag and Ryan Monseler.

Also affected were construction workers Elimar Gonong, Matias Sangrano, Gerardo Lauro, and father and son Romeo Ogayon Sr and Romeo Jr.

Also brought to the hospital was nine-year-old Al Christian Fladtiosa.

Only Gonong and Sangrano remain confined.

According to Noval, it was Tecson, who cooked the said food using the mushroom given to her by a lady friend. It hasn’t yet been established from where the mushroom was picked.

Because she could not eat all of the food she cooked, Tecson decided to give some of it to her neighbors and the workers at the construction site nearby. —Edwin Ian Melecio with Darrel Carumba of Banat News/NLQ   (THE FREEMAN)