The man was discovered by his family days after the injection in serious condition. He had jaundice, nausea, diarrhea, extreme confusion (unclear whether that was due to the mushrooms or not) and was vomiting blood.
He was brought to the ICU as his lungs and kidneys had already begun to fail, his liver had suffered an acute injury, and his pulse was high due to septic shock (infection-related dilation of blood vessels which causes reduced oxygen flow to the brain).
In the hospital, doctors found mysterious blood clots which they said required further investigation. After taking cultures from the man's blood, the team was shocked to find that "the species of mushroom he had injected was now growing in his blood."
The team also explained that due to the vast injuries the man had incurred, it was not clear whether the extreme confusion he experienced was due to the psychoactive effects of the drug. "It is unclear whether active intravascular infection with a psychoactive fungus such as Psilocybe cubensis may prompt persistent psychoactive effects as seen with ingestion of the same species, which could further contribute to changes in perception and cognition," the report reads.
The man was released after 22 days in the hospital, connected to a ventilator, and has since been put on a steady regimen of two courses of antibiotics and one antifungal treatment.
Last year, psilocybin mushrooms were first legalized for recreational use in the state of Oregon, as well as in the cities of Oakland, California and Denver, Colorado.