Iirc it is the russula that is commonly confused for the deathcap and its variations (amanita) people usually report feeling like they have confused for amanita.
The russula is a very common one to forage and I can kind of see the resemblance, but I also have not encountered an amanita that is too convincing at passing for russula, at least to me, especially if you actually look beyond the cap. So realistically you are right, I don’t really feel like you could forage the wrong one with experience, but people from all different backgrounds still manage to do it with a certain regularity, which is why I say this is plausible as an accident. It feels like too much work and they would probably have to cook the medical record since he was probably in the hospital for a bit before he died (yea, two weeks).
Iirc it is the russula that is commonly confused for the deathcap and its variations (amanita) people usually report feeling like they have confused for amanita. The russula is a very common one to forage and I can kind of see the resemblance, but I also have not encountered an amanita that is too convincing at passing for russula, at least to me, especially if you actually look beyond the cap. So realistically you are right, I don’t really feel like you could forage the wrong one with experience, but people from all different backgrounds still manage to do it with a certain regularity, which is why I say this is plausible as an accident. It feels like too much work and they would probably have to cook the medical record since he was probably in the hospital for a bit before he died (yea, two weeks).