45 year old José Manuel Hidalgo is waiting to learn whether any lasting damage has been done to his liver after he ate a death cap mushroom last weekend to prove to his friends that it was not poisonous. The incident occurred last Sunday in Mr Hidalgo's home town of Fuentes de León (Badajoz).

Following a day spent picking and exhibiting mushrooms, Mr Hidalgo got into an argument with a group of other mycologists concerning the dangers of a mushroom labelled as a death cap 'amanita phalloides'.

To prove that it was not poisonous, Mr Hidalgo bit off half the mushroom then began to chew defiantly. While his fellow fungus enthusiasts called the Guardia Civil and an ambulance, Mr Hidalgo continued to insist that there was no danger as he devoured the rest of the exhibit.

A close friend eventually persuaded Mr Hidalgo to be taken to to Zafra Hospital where he started to show the first symptoms of intoxication "when his whole body turned yellow then began to swell up, and he started throwing up uncontrollably," whereupon he was rushed in a mobile intensive care unit to the Infanta Cristina Hospital in Badajoz.

Mr Hidalgo left intensive care yesterday, and is waiting for test results.