A 31-year-old patient is dead after eating a poisonous mushroom on the grounds of Cordilleras Mental Health Facility in Redwood City, Calif. His family says the facility neglected to maintain a safe environment, according to an article on the ABC 7 News website.
Matthew Hicks was being treated for schizophrenia. Family members say he found and ate the mushroom while outside in a fenced-in area.
"They said before they knew it, Matthew had picked up a mushroom and he was biting into it and had eaten it," Melissa Jackson, the patient's mother, said.
Telecare, the company that runs the program at Cordilleras, says it can't talk about what happened, citing patient confidentiality. But the company did say patients are accompanied by a staff member whenever they go outside.
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