A three-year old boy who ate a poisonous mushroom while foraging with family in downtown Victoria last week has died.
Island Health confirms the toddler died last night while receiving treatment at a hospital in Edmonton. He was initially treated at Victoria General Hospital before being airlifted to Alberta.
It's believed he ate a Death Cap mushroom. A local forest ecologist says the Death Cap is responsible for 90% of mushroom related deaths.
The region's chief medical health officer, Dr. Richard Stanwick, says authorities returned to the unspecified site downtown where the mushrooms were picked, and enough Death Caps to kill twelve people were found and removed.
Dr. Stanwick says, at the urging of the family, Island Health will make efforts to improve public education, and to consider signage in areas where the Death Caps are found. Death Cap mushrooms are mainly white with a white or yellow stem, and a cap that ranges from yellowish-green to light brown.