Family blames health care center for son's mushroom poisoning

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (KGO) -- A mental health care patient is dead after eating a poisonous mushroom and now his family is demanding answers. They blame the peninsula facility where 31-year-old Matthew Hicks was being treated.

A poisonous mushroom that can be fatal if consumed is called "destroying angel".

At this point, the coroner's report is inconclusive. However, family members believe that's what 31-year-old Matthew Hicks ate. Hicks was being treated for schizophrenia at Cordilleras Mental Health Facility in Redwood City. 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, Matthew's mother, said.

Hicks's mother and brother flew from Chicago as soon as they got word. She says 24 hours after eating the mushroom, her son began vomiting. Four days later, she pulled him off life support.

"These are vulnerable people. They need to be protected at all times. He was not protected. He was not safe there," Myron Hicks, Matthew's brother, said.

Family members blame the staff at Cordilleras. They say they neglected to maintain a safe environment.

"Whatever they have going on right now, it's not enough because somebody died on their grounds by eating something that was grown on their campus," Myron 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.

For Hicks's family, that's little comfort. They want to know how closely their son was monitored, but aren't getting answers.

"Yes he had mental illness. He did. But he also had a human right to be safe and taken care of," Jackson said.

The family is now considering legal action. They say they know it won't bring Matthew back, but it could prevent what happened to him from happening to someone else.