Family seriously ill after eating wild mushrooms for dinner

A family of four from Connecticut in the US was left seriously ill after eating mushrooms picked from their backyard.

One family member, a woman, was listed as "gravely ill" after the poison started to impact her major organs, including her liver and kidney. 

The Hartford Courant reported Shah Noor, 40, discovered the large, white mushrooms behind her house in Newington, Connecticut, and decided to cook them in a stirfry with onions, garlic and peppers.

The next morning, they started to suffer severe vomiting and stomach cramps as the toxins invaded their system.

Daughter, Wafa Guloona, 24, was the most seriously ill, with reports her liver nearly shut down. She remains in hospital but her condition is stable.

“I was really scared. And it was really painful to see all my family members in the same situation,” Guloona told WTIC-TV.

Noor, husband Musarat Ullah, 59, and another daughter, Aiman Bibi, 21, were treated in hospital with “a charcoal solution that absorbs the toxins and a drug known as N-Acetylcysteine, which helps restore damaged liver cells", the newspaper reported.

Pakistan-born Noor said she was unaware wild mushrooms could be lethal because it was common to pick and eat them in her homeland.

But medics said the mushrooms were part of the Amanita bisporigera species, commonly known as the "destroying angel". While they look nice and edible, they should be avoided as they are potentially lethal.