POISON MUSHROOMS WARNING ISSUED

Dead Girl's Mother Warns Other Teens To Avoid Eating Any Of The Wild Fungi

VICTORIA -- The grieving mother of an 18-year-old secondary school
student who died after eating poisonous mushrooms is warning teens to
stay clear of magic mushrooms that can easily be confused with lethal
species of fungi.

Morgan Jayne Makowecki of North Saanich, a bright, popular student
who loved music and was heading off to college in Calgary, died one
year ago after a Friday night party in Sidney.

At first it was assumed she died of a rare liver disease, but 10 days
ago the B.C. Coroners Service told her family she died of amanitin
poisoning after eating a mushroom at the party.

The Coroners Service has issued a public warning telling people to
avoid small, brown, wild mushrooms.

Delia Wiley, Makowecki's mother, said she was shocked, especially as
her daughter did not use drugs.

"For us, it doesn't change the outcome, but it tells us what kind of
threat still exists. I knew it was imperative to get the word out
there," she said.

"These mushrooms are so close in physical appearance to the other
mushrooms that kids have to know with one-thousand-per-cent certainty
what they are doing."

Makowecki was Wiley's only child and she does not want any other
family to suffer in the same way.

Last May, Makowecki woke up on Saturday morning feeling sick and
thought it was a combination of a hangover and flu.

The next day she was slightly better, which is typical of amanitin
toxin, which attacks the liver, but leaves people feeling better
while it is doing irreversible damage to the organs, Coroner Barb
McLintock said.

On Monday at 6:30 a.m., Wiley tried to wake her daughter for school
and found her unconscious.

She was taken to hospital in Victoria, airlifted to Vancouver and, on
Wednesday, given a liver transplant, but on Thursday -- one week
before her 19th birthday -- she died.

It appears other people ate mushrooms at the party, but Makowecki was
unlucky enough to get the bad one, Wiley said.

Once the mushroom is ingested there is only a 12-hour window when
treatment might work.

Her father, Fred Makowecki of Drumheller, Alta., believes his
daughter may have eaten the mushroom accidentally.

"We will never know," he said.

After Morgan's death her father started the Morgan Jayne Project, an
AIDS prevention program for infants on Roatan, an island off the
coast of Honduras. Infant mortality on the island has dropped dramatically.

"Morgan had a wonderful, productive life and affected everyone around
her and she's still helping people after her death," Makowecki said.

It is possible the mushroom could have been eaten accidentally, McLintock said.

"People do collect wild mushrooms for a variety of reasons including
dinner," she said.

It is not known which mushroom poisoned Makowecki, but it was
probably either the Galerina autumnalis or the Conocybe filaris, both
of which are small and brown and closely resemble edible mushrooms,
McLintock said.

Mushrooms like cool damp weather so, this year, there is likely to be
a big spring mushroom crop, she said.

Rob Countess, who holds a masters degree in mycology, said the
Galerina autumnalis grows in the same woody habitat as psilocybe
cyanescens -- or magic mushrooms.

A lethal dose of Galerina is 100 to 150 grams of fresh mushrooms or
10 grams of dried mushrooms.

"But it's nature, so it's variable," Countess said.

At parties people sometimes eat handfuls of mushrooms, but wild
mushrooms should be avoided unless you know exactly where they came
from, he said.

"Never eat mushrooms bought off the street because some idiot has
been picking them and only pick your own if you know for sure you can
identify the poisonous ones," Countess said.