The Mushroom Man
In mid-January, doctors described a patient who developed a life-threatening infection after he injected a homemade concoction of psychedelic mushrooms into his bloodstream. According to the doctors, the man had been struggling with depression for a while. So he decided to self-medicate with mushrooms, which have legitimately shown some promise as a depression treatment. However, for some reason, he chose to boil the mushrooms he obtained into a “tea,” then filtered the mixture through a cotton swab and injected it intravenously. Within days, he ended up in the emergency room vomiting blood alongside symptoms of lethargy, jaundice, and diarrhea.
Tests showed that he had both a bacterial and fungal infection in his blood. The fungal species found in his blood matched the mushrooms he had taken, leading doctors to conclude that his body had indeed become a breeding ground for the mushrooms. After a month in the hospital, including a week in the ICU, the man did pull through, though he continued to need long-term antimicrobial therapy.
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