On July 24, 55-year-old Tek Bahadur Chalaun of Kushe Rural Municipality in Jajarkot brought home some wild mushrooms that he had gotten from a nearby forest while collecting fodder for his cattle.

After consuming the mushroom, five members of Tek Bahadur’s family lost their lives to food poisoning while three, including Tek Bahadur, are currently undergoing treatment at the Surkhet-based Karnali Provincial Hospital.

“I didn’t realise that the mushrooms were poisonous. In a span of a week, I have lost my son, my daughters and my brother’s grandchildren,” he said.

Tek Bahadur lost his 23-year-old son, two daughters aged 16 and 13, and his brother’s grandchildren—a two-year-old and an 11-year-old—to food poisoning.

The family members who had consumed the poisonous mushroom started showing symptoms the very next day on July 25. Tek Bahadur rushed his family to a nearby health centre at Batulechaur but he could only save two of the eight members.

His daughter-in-law and his 15-year-old niece are undergoing treatment for mushroom poisoning at the provincial hospital. Their health condition is unstable, according to the hospital’s medical department chief Dr KN Poudel.

“The patients show some severe symptoms of poisoning,” said Poudel, “We cannot say for sure how they will respond to the treatment.”