Woman dies after mushroom drink
A woman has died and two others are in hospital after ingesting a drink, reportedly containing mushrooms, at an “alternative health” retreat near Ballarat.
The 52-year-old woman from Ringwood died on Sunday after becoming ill from the drink at the Soul Barn Creative Wellbeing Centre in Clunes about midnight.
The woman died at the retreat and two other people were taken to Ballarat Base Hospital for observation.
Paramedics responded to “reports of an incident” in Clunes just before midnight on Saturday, an Ambulance Victoria spokesman said.
Moorabool crime investigation unit detectives are probing the circumstances surrounding the death and will be interviewing other people who were at the retreat at the time.
The Fraser St retreat is an “alternative healing” practice that holds meditation and “sound healing” sessions.
It is understood there is currently nothing to indicate the drink under investigation is widely available for consumers. Food standard authorities have not issued any recalls related to the death at this stage.
The day after the woman’s sudden death, Soul Barn posted a social media statement saying an upcoming event had been cancelled.
Investigations are ongoing and police will prepare a report for the coroner.
The death comes less than two weeks after authorities warned Victorians that poisonous mushrooms were growing across the state.
An alert from the Health Department on April 5 said those deadly mushrooms included the notorious death cap and another fungi, yellow-staining mushrooms, that is virtually indistinguishable from safe, store-bought mushrooms.
Acting chief health officer
Dr Evelyn Wong warned just one death cap mushroom was enough to kill a grown adult, and said it was impossible to make poisonous mushrooms safe to eat.
“Cooking, peeling or drying these mushrooms does not remove or inactivate the poison,” she said.
“There is no home test available to distinguish safe and edible mushrooms from poisonous mushrooms.
“Mushrooms purchased from a supermarket, greengrocer or other reputable source are safe to eat.”
Anyone with information about the Clunes incident should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000