Food poisoning: Three people are undergoing treatment at the national referral hospital in Thimphu after consuming poisonous mushroom.

Five people of the nine who were on their way to Thimphu from Paro roasted wild mushrooms for lunch at Tsaluna in Thimphu at around 2:30pm on July 19.

Ugyen Zam, 40, from Mongar, said that they picked the mushroom known locally as Chimpa on the way.

An hour after eating the mushrooms, they started feeling dizzy with headaches, got diarrhoea and started throwing up.

“I felt like I got drunk and couldn’t even recognise my friends,” Ugyen Zam said. “We were crawling and puking everywhere.”

One of them called a taxi driver who took them to hospital.

“We added garlic and Sichuan pepper to make sure the mushroom didn’t poison us,” Ugyen Zam said. “I had consumed the same mushroom several times but nothing happened to me then.”

In April this year, a 12-year-old girl from Gomdar in Samdrupjongkhar died after consuming poisonous mushrooms.

National Mushroom Centre is cautioning the public to avoid consuming wild mushrooms unless it is confirmed to be safe for consumption.

Dechen Tshomo