Story By: Anna Casap, Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News

A dad has died and his wife and infant son only survived when a donor liver was divided up between them after they ate a deadly mushroom by mistake.

The tragedy happened in the city of Kobryn, located in the south-western corner of Belarus, when Pavel (Pasha) Brashiuc, 24, his wife Mariya (Masha) Lyubimova, 22, and their son Miroslav, who is 22 months old, ate what is suspected of being a death cap (Amanita phalloides) mushroom.

The three had been gathering mushrooms in a local park and mistakenly included the deadly fungus in the basket before cooking themselves a meal.

All three were hospitalised when they first developed symptoms, with the regional hospital then transporting the mother and baby to the Scientific and Practical Centre of Surgery, Transplantation and Haematology, which is in the Belarus capital Minsk.

An emergency liver transplant was performed on the mother and the infant son, but the dad, who remained in the Brest Regional Hospital in a critical condition and in a coma never recovered – and it has now been confirmed that he died.

Albina, who is the sister of the dead man, said that Pavel and Mariya had gathered the mushrooms in a local park and had made a meal before deciding to go out together for a drink that evening, leaving their child with friends.

She said: “They became ill – first Masha, then Pasha.”

Mariya’s mother Liudmila said that her daughter was suffering from nausea, diarrhoea, vomiting, weakness, and that the young woman could not get up from the couch. She called an ambulance and the mother was hospitalised. Later, Pavel and the baby were brought to the emergency room.”

She added: “Pavel had more poison in his body than Mariya after apparently eating more of the mushrooms. Doctors told us that the poison filled his whole body, ulcers formed on the intestines, the blood in his system was completely poisoned. Therefore, there was no point in making a transplant. Pasha received blood transfusions – it was the only treatment they could give him. As a result, nothing helped.”

Fortunately for the other two, a donor liver was found in the Scientific and Practical Centre of Surgery, Transplantation and Haematology, where mum and baby were delivered, without which both would also have been killed.

One third of the organ were transplanted to the baby, and two thirds to the mum, according to Liudmila, Mariya’s mother.

Mariya, meanwhile, is on the road to recovery, and recently published a post on social networks, saying: “We’re better, we are alive! Thanks to my family for caring so much, for believing in us!”

She said that her son remained in a medical coma, but that his pupils were reacting to light and he was moving his legs and arms, and that he had reacted to the voices of his family.

The death cap, widely found all over Europe, is a potentially deadly type of mushroom that often resembles edible species.

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