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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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[UK] Best selling author fighting for his life after eating mushrooms
#8863986 - 09/02/08 12:57 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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Horse Whisperer author Nicholas Evans left fighting for his life after eating poisonous mushrooms on Scots trip September 1, 2008 - DailyRecord.co.uk
THE millionaire author of The Horse Whisperer is fighting for life after eating poisonous mushrooms on a Scots holiday.
Nicholas Evans's wife, her clan chief brother and his wife were also poisoned by the lethal Destroying Angel mushrooms. All four victims were desperately ill last night but Nicholas was in the worst condition and was on adialysis machine.
Friends are frantic with worry about Nicholas, 58, whose book was turned into a hit movie by Robert Redford.
A source close to the family said: "They had absolutely no idea how dangerous these mushrooms were."
The poisoning happened as dad-of-four Nicholas and wife Charlotte enjoyed a holiday on the 12,000-acre Moray estate of Charlotte's brother, Sir Alastair Gordon-Cumming.
The victims picked the mushrooms on a woodland walk and ate them later. People who eat Destroying Angels usually suffer liver and kidney failure.
A family friend said: "They have picked mushrooms in the woods before and simply thought these were the safe ones.
"The family are normally very careful about picking them. I don't know where exactly they picked the fungi but it shows how easily this can happen to anyone.
"The big worry is that others could make the same mistake with the same disastrous consequences."
Nicholas and Charlotte, 50, a successful singer-songwriter who has written for the Sugababes, were taken to Dr Gray's hospital in Elgin with Sir Alastair, the 54-year-old chief of the Clan Cumming, and his wife Lady Louise, 46.
The victims were later transferred to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. All were very seriously ill but stable last night.
Destroying Angels can easily be mistaken for edible mushrooms but are among the most poisonous fungi in Europe. As little as half a mushroom can kill.
Nicholas and his relatives fell ill last Monday after picking the Destroying Angels on Sir Alastair's Altyre estate, which lies between Forres and Grantown-on-Spey.
It can take up to 24 hours for the symptoms of poisoning to show, and by then the victims' organs have absorbed the mushroom toxins.
Symptoms include vomiting, diarrhoea, cramps, delirium and convulsions.
The poison has no antidote but treatment has improved in recent years. Doctors give victims massive doses of penicillin and pump fluid into their bodies and dialysis is used in the most serious cases.
Destroying Angels, or amanita virosa, are from the same family as the lethal Death Cap mushroom.
They are very similar to edible puff balls and can also be mistaken for field mushrooms.
Sources say a huge crop of mushrooms has grown on the Altyre estate this year, helped by the wet summer.
After Nicholas and his relatives became ill, samples were collected from the woods and sent to Glasgow University and the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh for analysis.
Nicholas was struggling with s65,000 of debt when Robert Redford bought the film rights for his half-written debut novel for an unprecedented s3million in 1995.
The movie of The Horse Whisperer, starring Redford, Kristin Scott Thomas and a 13-year-old Scarlett Johansson, was released in 1998.
It earned a Golden Globe nomination for best drama and a best director nomination for Redford.
Nicholas's book also became a staggering success. It has sold more than 15million copies worldwide, topped the bestseller lists in 20 countries and been translated into 36 languages.
Worcestershire-born Nicholas got a first-class law degree at Oxford and worked as a journalist on ITV's Weekend World and The South Bank Show before becoming an author.
He got the idea for The Horse Whisperer from a blacksmith who told him about people with the mysterious gift of healing traumatised horses.
While he was working on the book, Nicholas was told he had a cancerous mole on his stomach.
Doctors removed it before the cancer cells could penetrate his skin. Nicholas, who had lost his mother to cancer, said the incident made him appreciate how important it was to make the most of life.
Nicholas has written three other novels, The Loop, The Smoke Jumper and The Divide, which was inspired by the break-up of his first marriage.
He had three children during his first marriage and he and Charlotte, his second wife, have an eight-year-old son, Finlay. They live in London and also own a14th-century mansion in Devon.
Charlotte wrote Soul Sound, which was a hit for Sugababes in 2001. She released her own album, Mind Walking, two years ago.
Sir Alastair became chief of the clan Cumming, or Comyn, six years ago.
The Comyns are directly descended from William the Conqueror. One of Sir Alastair's ancestors, John Comyn, known as The Red Comyn, was killed by Robert the Bruce in 1306 as the Comyn and Bruce families battled for supremacy in Scotland.
Sir Alastair and Lady Louise have three children, William, 15, Sophie 13, and Kit 10.
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Coaster
Baʿal
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Re: Best selling author fighting for his life after eating mushrooms [UK] [Re: veggie]
#8864008 - 09/02/08 01:02 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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that blows but there is a lesson to 2 learned
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Cognitive_Shift
CS actual
Registered: 12/11/07
Posts: 29,591
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Re: Best selling author fighting for his life after eating mushrooms [UK] [Re: Coaster]
#8864018 - 09/02/08 01:05 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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be 100% sure there not piousness its really not worth it.
-------------------- L'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés et désirs
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Crasher
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Re: Best selling author fighting for his life after eating mushrooms [UK] [Re: Cognitive_Shift]
#8864081 - 09/02/08 01:32 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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All I can say is
-------------------- Give me silence, water, hope; Give me struggle, iron, volcanoes...
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johnm214
Registered: 05/31/07
Posts: 17,582
Loc: Americas
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Re: Best selling author fighting for his life after eating mushrooms [UK] [Re: Crasher]
#8864097 - 09/02/08 01:38 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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your forearm? That's pretty nifty coloring, I could never stay in the lines.
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Crasher
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Re: Best selling author fighting for his life after eating mushrooms [UK] [Re: johnm214]
#8864108 - 09/02/08 01:47 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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you "sling/slang/slung ink?"
I won't complain when it's free for the sake of humor.
Good shop, if you're ever in San Antonio, go to Mind's Eye.
-------------------- Give me silence, water, hope; Give me struggle, iron, volcanoes...
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johnm214
Registered: 05/31/07
Posts: 17,582
Loc: Americas
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Re: Best selling author fighting for his life after eating mushrooms [UK] [Re: Crasher]
#8864119 - 09/02/08 01:53 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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Naw I'm worthless, just jokin. That's cool they did it for free, how did that conversation go?
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Crasher
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Re: Best selling author fighting for his life after eating mushrooms [UK] [Re: johnm214]
#8864129 - 09/02/08 01:58 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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He was working on my arm, I was only about 10 days out of the hospital, I started telling him about the jokes I was making when I got med-evaced.
We agreed a batman-style kapow, kaboom, oops, or something would be hilarious. I'd already put 5 hours in the chair, so he said If I wanted something funny on my stump, it was free.
It certainly receives wildly different responses. either people tell me its funny or they look at me like I haven't realized my hand is gone.
Oh well. There's almost 5000 troops that would rather be me then dead.
-------------------- Give me silence, water, hope; Give me struggle, iron, volcanoes...
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JusListen
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Re: Best selling author fighting for his life after eating mushrooms [UK] [Re: Crasher]
#8864155 - 09/02/08 02:15 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
Crasher said:
Oh well. There's almost 5000 troops that would rather be me then dead.
god-bless ya brotha!
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rodfarva
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Re: Best selling author fighting for his life after eating mushrooms [UK] [Re: JusListen]
#8864254 - 09/02/08 03:30 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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So thats why they say stay away from aminitas?! Dumb....
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Crasher
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Re: Best selling author fighting for his life after eating mushrooms [UK] [Re: rodfarva]
#8864275 - 09/02/08 03:40 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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How does that saying go? "all mushrooms are edible, but some only once..."
-------------------- Give me silence, water, hope; Give me struggle, iron, volcanoes...
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rodfarva
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Re: Best selling author fighting for his life after eating mushrooms [UK] [Re: Crasher]
#8864289 - 09/02/08 03:48 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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In survival training everyone i ever heard said stay away from all fungus, saying they have no nutritional value. I love cooking with them, but never have i been compelled to eat wild mushies.
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Crasher
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Re: Best selling author fighting for his life after eating mushrooms [UK] [Re: rodfarva]
#8864296 - 09/02/08 03:57 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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Especially not at random.
If I'm trying to forage, I still do the silly toxin test by rubbing plant matter on my wrists and inside of my elbow to see if it's irritating. God knows what you're thinking to pull a mushroom out of the ground and assume its gourmet.
-------------------- Give me silence, water, hope; Give me struggle, iron, volcanoes...
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monkeyheaven
Registered: 07/09/07
Posts: 964
Loc: yonder
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Re: Best selling author fighting for his life after eating mushrooms [UK] [Re: veggie]
#8864491 - 09/02/08 06:28 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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The Penicillin treatment is interesting to me. I though that antibiotics were usually used for bacterial infections. I think I use a search engine now. I hope this guy pulls through.
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thedudenj
Man of the Woods
Registered: 08/18/04
Posts: 14,684
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Re: Best selling author fighting for his life after eating mushrooms [UK] [Re: monkeyheaven]
#8864745 - 09/02/08 08:35 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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wow i eat amanita m and gusssui and have no problems
-------------------- "You all are just puppets... You have no heart...and cannot feel any pain..."" you may think thats pain you feel but you must have a heart to feel true pain and that pain wont be yours
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MHbound
Ballin Out At All Cost
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Re: Best selling author fighting for his life after eating mushrooms [UK] [Re: thedudenj]
#8865331 - 09/02/08 11:29 AM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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I said it less than 1 week ago that someone would be eating these soon...They are popping up everywhere lately. Sucks. If you want to keep us safe let us cultivate mushrooms indoors, or it won't be long before this happens again.
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thedudenj
Man of the Woods
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Posts: 14,684
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Re: Best selling author fighting for his life after eating mushrooms [UK] [Re: MHbound]
#8865603 - 09/02/08 12:24 PM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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people are able to cultivate mushrooms indoors
-------------------- "You all are just puppets... You have no heart...and cannot feel any pain..."" you may think thats pain you feel but you must have a heart to feel true pain and that pain wont be yours
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PinheadX
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Re: Best selling author fighting for his life after eating mushrooms [UK] [Re: thedudenj]
#8865975 - 09/02/08 01:48 PM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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This article is incorrect, or at least, partially incorrect
http://www.examiner.com/a-1566132~Mushrooms_poison__Horse_Whisperer__author.html
the article I linked to, while short, lists the toxic species as Cortinarius speciosissimus, which are synonymous with Cortinarius rubellus, or the Deadly webcap.
from the article "The A.P. Watt literary agency said tests established that the mushrooms included the highly toxic variety Cortinarius speciosissimus, which attacks the kidneys."
It also mentions that they have received dialysis treatment and are responding well. If they had eaten Amanita virosa, they would have likely needed more than dialysis.
Just trying to get the facts straight on this one. There are certainly more toxic species out there than just the most deadly ones, and people should be aware of this.
-------------------- If you want to find psilocybin in species that are not yet known to be psychoactive, you should do chemical tests. That way you won't get sick and die all the time. - Alan Rockefeller Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
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PinheadX
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Re: Best selling author fighting for his life after eating mushrooms [UK] [Re: PinheadX]
#8866064 - 09/02/08 02:04 PM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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another article... This time it's the Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/sep/02/2?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront
and it looks like the Daily Record has it wrong. Several other articles have the species listed as Cortinarius Speciosissimus (rubellus).
-------------------- If you want to find psilocybin in species that are not yet known to be psychoactive, you should do chemical tests. That way you won't get sick and die all the time. - Alan Rockefeller Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
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rhizomorgasmic
people are strange
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Re: Best selling author fighting for his life after eating mushrooms [UK] [Re: PinheadX]
#8866237 - 09/02/08 02:35 PM (15 years, 6 months ago) |
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sad, he should have gone to The Shoomery.
-------------------- In principle, a mycelium that can spread through the ground could keep on growing indefinitely and large, old mycelia are known.... The particular Armillaria ostoyae mycelium in question is spread over 890 hectares and is estimated to be at least 2,400 years old!
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