A woman has died in agony after eating mushrooms that were picked at a botanical gardens and which she later cooked, thinking they were safe to eat.

The Daily Mail reports that 39-year-old Amphon Tuckey from Newport in the Isle of Wight ate the death cap toadstools with sausages – despite her husband Mike having warned her about the dangers of eating fungi that grows in the wild.

Mrs Tuckey’s niece Kannika had visited the Ventnor Botanic Gardens on the Isle of Wight in September 2008 and had picked the mushrooms thinking they were a type she had seen growing in her native Thailand.

When Mrs Tuckey became ill after eating the toadstools, she did not tell anyone – including her husband or paramedics – why she felt ill and received the wrong treatment. She died after spending 30 hours ‘in agony’.

Kannika Tuckey’s husband Paul said that he had been 90 per cent sure the mushrooms were safe to eat – despite the fact that he is colour blind.

Kannika had asked her aunt to check that the mushrooms were safe to eat and had been told that they were. Kannika was ill after eating three or four mushrooms, but managed to survive after six days in hospital. Her aunt – known as Juny – ate half a plateful. When paramedics arrived she told them that her illness had been caused by the sausages.

‘I think that was because she thought I would be angry after initially telling her not to eat the mushrooms,’ said her husband Mike Tuckey.

Paramedics treated Mrs Tuckey for food poisoning and contacted a hospital doctor – she was told she should ‘call back in the morning’ if her condition had not improved.

Mrs Tuckey's condition continued to deteriorate and later in the afternoon, her GP, Dr David Isaac, visited – but Mrs Tuckey said her illness was not caused by the mushrooms and he prescribed medication for gastroenteritis.

Mr Tuckey held his wife all night because she was so ill, but eventually he dozed off and awoke at 7am to find her dead.

The coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death.

Head gardener at the botanical gardens, Christopher Kidd, said he had helped police identify the mushrooms as death caps.

Isle of Wight Coroner John Matthews said that, despite the fact Mrs Tuckey had misled paramedics about eating the mushrooms and received the wrong treatment as a result, the amount she had digested meant she would have died anyway.

'I do not think it would be appropriate to put up signs everywhere warning about mushrooms, as it is a well-known hazard and you do take a risk when you eat anything that grows in the wild,’ he said.

'The answer is, never to do it at all.'

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