Fatal Fungi

​Writer: Amit Acharya is a young teen who is eager to impact the world. Amit is humorous and creative, and loves to meet new people.

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     In late September 2015, a 16 year old boy had eaten small mushrooms in a German farm. The fungi resembled one such grown back in Syria that could have been eaten, and the boy thought it would have tasted the same. Unfortunately, the edible fungi turned out to be the poisonous death cap mushrooms, resulting in the boy’s death.
      It has been about 4 years since people started to abandoned their homes in Syria, and still most aren't getting the necessary needs for survival.  Innocent people take actions into their own hands, and wind up killing themselves just for survival. The name of the boy is unknown, but he was taken to the hospital in Hannover, Germany where doctors diagnosed him with liver failure. The country was not surprised by the death of boy; refugees eating deadly fungi had become common, with an astonishing 35 cases in a couple of days. The German government released many flyers in different languages warning refugees “not to eat any mushrooms found on the ground”. Though not all people have the ability to read, awareness has the ability to spread the message between the refugees by word of mouth, and will soon decrease and hopefully end the deaths caused by fungi. Though eating these fatal mushrooms is horrific, there is even a larger problem at hand. Also, these refugees notice the symptoms at hand before it's too late, and find themselves dead before doctors can do anything. For cases like these, the patient will always need a liver transplant in order to survive. But finding the correct liver, in the short amount of time to live is heart breaking. There are patients in critical conditions, waiting for a suitable liver just to live, all because they ate a couple of mushrooms. If these refugees were given proper necessities such as food, healthcare, water, than dozens of people wouldn’t have lost their lives in Germany. A liver transplant is crucial because, the death cap mushroom deteriorates the liver. Unfortunately, to add to the complexities, the tissue of the switch must be compatible with the body, or else it will ruin the system. Though doctors know if a certain tissue will be compatible or not, finding the correct one could take a while.
​     For an example, the case in Germany required the hospital to set an ad for a transplant in eight different countries. However, the pain and effort did not pay off, since the young man had died in a matter of days. Refugees unknowingly eat whatever they can get their hands on in these European countries because they have no confirmation of a food source on a daily basis. The fliers placed to avoid the fatal mushrooms aren’t working. There have been a total of 30 deadly fungi cases in Germany, in which all patients were escaped Syrian refugees. Mistaking it for the common Mediterranean grown mushroom, many escapees are relying on resources found by chance. People can help by first trying to notify refugees about the dangers of the mushroom, and the fatal results it can have on the liver. Also, donating food will help refugees not rely on such resources. With the amount of deaths accumulating each day due to the war in the MIddle East it is vital that we do everything we can to insure more lives aren’t lost to a mere mushroom. Together, we can end the passing of innocent people.