Salinas Valley Health warned the public on Friday about a threat of poisonous mushrooms in the area. Three individuals were hospitalized Tuesday after ingesting amanita phalloides – or death cap mushrooms – purchased from a truck vendor in East Salinas. The individuals reported buying the mushrooms from a truck in a supermarket parking lot, according to a news release sent out by the hospital. It’s unclear how many sites the vendor operates from. The patients came into the Salinas Valley Health Emergency Room on New Year’s Eve after cooking with the mushrooms and were transferred to Stanford Medicine. They suffered from liver damage due to severe mushroom poisoning, according to the news release. It can be easy to mistake death cap mushrooms as edible since they have a similar appearance as white button mushrooms. Depending on its age, death caps can grow up to 15 cm and have a domed or white cap and off-white stem. Eating these mushrooms can leave individuals with symptoms including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and stomach pain. Symptoms can appear to disappear after 24 hours but the toxicity of the mushrooms can lead to liver damage/failure and in the worst case scenario, death. Salinas Valley Health officials are urging community members who have eaten mushrooms recently and suffered from these symptoms to seek emergency medical treatment. It also encourages individuals to only eat mushrooms from “reputable produce outlets,” said the news release. The cases have been reported to Salinas Police and the County of Monterey Public Health Department. Related Articles Health | Louisiana person is the first US bird flu death, health officials say Health | Healthcare shipments a $20 billion lifeline for UPS as it looks to defy slowdown Health | How drinking alcohol can affect your health Health | Fewer than 1 in 1,000 US adolescents receive gender-affirming medications, researchers find Health | Sick season is in full force. What the latest CDC figures show “These are rare cases which is why it is so concerning to have these mushrooms apparently being sold as produce in our community,” said Dr. Erica Locke, Salinas Valley Health Emergency Room physician in the release. “In my nearly 20 year medical career, I have only seen one other case like this. “Foraging for wild mushrooms in our community is common. Unfortunately, death cap mushrooms can be mistaken for traditional, edible, white button mushrooms which is why it is extremely important not to forage for mushrooms or purchase mushrooms that could have been the result of someone foraging for mushrooms.”